New Sports After the Epidemic Is Unblocked, Taiwan Bicycle Industry Benefits

In response to the epidemic, bikes have become one of the best ways to commute and exercise under the principle of maintaining the best social distance.

Bicycle has become one of the ways of commuting and sports

It has a profound impact on the global economy, industries, and lifestyles. Under the principle of maintaining social distance, bicycles have become one of the best ways to commute and exercise, leading to a surge in consumer market demand. An epidemic has changed commuting habits in Europe and the United States, and even the future will be a new normal. Therefore, the bicycle industry is also optimistic that it will benefit in the post-epidemic era.

During the spread of the epidemic, people were afraid of riding on crowded and closed subways or buses and chose bicycles that were both sporty and could maintain social distancing, resulting in a surge in demand for bicycles. Liu Yongchang, Chief Executive Officer of Giant Machinery, once said that there will usually be greater demand for bicycles after the epidemic. However, compared with SARS that only affects China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, the scope of the epidemic has affected the world, not only in China, but also in Europe and the United States, and the market rebound is even more significant.

According to statistics from market research companies, the sales of bicycles, accessories, and repair services across the United States in March nearly doubled over the same period in 2019. Commuter and exercise bicycle sales grew 66%, leisure bicycles grew 121%, children's bicycles grew 59%, and electric bicycles also grew 85%.

Cycling fever is also closely related to the various measures introduced by various governments in the epidemic. For example, the Italian government provides a 500-euro subsidy for the citizens to buy bicycles. In France, in addition to the bicycle purchase subsidy, an additional 200-euro electric bicycle bonus and a 50-euro repair subsidy are added. The British government proposes to let the public Ride a bicycle to reduce health insurance expenses.

Even countries have begun to accelerate their "car-free projects", including France and Italy actively adding bicycle lanes to make the riding environment more friendly. The British government spent £250 million on bicycle construction and subsidies in June 2020. In the future, these streets will only be open to bicycles and pedestrians. The same is true in the United States. New York City announced that it will temporarily open 100 miles of roads to pedestrians and cyclists. Oakland also plans to close 10% of streets during the epidemic to ban cars. , This measure may become a permanent policy in the future.

The spread of the epidemic has pushed up the use of a large number of bicycles and electric bicycles, and the bicycle industry is also optimistic. This upsurge can last at least a year and even become a new normal. This new normal after the epidemic is expected to bring business opportunities to the bicycle industry.

For Taiwan, which has a complete bicycle industry chain, it is also expected to benefit from it. The Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association revealed that the orders for Taiwan Bicycle Giant and Merida are now scheduled to the end of the year. Among them, for example, Giant's situation has improved since the second quarter. Sales in May increased sharply, and the monthly profit in June was nearly the entire quarter of the first quarter. In 2020, the revenue of electric bicycles is expected to increase by 30% annually, and the overall bicycle revenue is estimated to increase by more than 20% annually.

Taiwan has a reputation as the "Bike Kingdom". In the past, the bicycle industry had a competitive advantage in the global market. However, in recent years, due to the global economic slowdown and the impact of shared bicycles, the growth of non-electric bicycles has also encountered bottlenecks, resulting in the overall bicycle output value in 2017 It was once down to NT$45.11 billion.

However, since 2018, the United States and the European Union have implemented tariff protection policies on mainland China, and Taiwanese manufacturers have also moved high-unit-price bicycle production lines back to the country. Coupled with the rise of the electric bicycle market, Taiwan's overall bicycle output value reached NT 64.99 billion in 2019. Yuan, a record high. Driven by the new lifestyle after the epidemic, Taiwan’s bicycle industry will ignite a new spark.

Bicycles have become an important means of transportation for people in the post-epidemic era. Among them, electric bicycles have been fueled by the aging population, which has driven Taiwan's electric bicycle output value to grow substantially in the past five years. The proportion of the overall bicycle output value has increased year by year and has exceeded 40%. It gradually replaced ordinary bicycles as the growth engine of Taiwan's bicycle industry. According to statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan’s electric bicycles have the largest sales in Europe, and their market share reached 64.7% in 2019, surpassing China and ranking first among all countries for the first time.

In the next 10 years, the sales of electric bicycles will account for 60-65% of all bicycles. If the global annual demand for bicycles is about 120 million units, Taiwan will have a lot of room for development in the electric bicycle industry.


Statistics on the development of Taiwan's bicycle industry released in March 2019

Bicycles have always been the representative industry of Taiwanese brands. In 2018, the output value reached 115.3 billion yuan, with bicycle parts accounting for 55.6% as the largest case, followed by finished cars with 34.9%, and electric bicycles with 9.5%. As far as the annual growth rate is concerned, electric bicycles have the fastest annual growth rate of 50.2% and their performance is outstanding.

1. Finished bicycles:
Affected by the ups and downs of China's shared bicycle fever, the output value of finished bicycles in my country reached a peak of 56.5 billion yuan in 2015 in the past five years, and then double-digit negative growth for two consecutive years, and then resumed positive growth in 2018 6.3%, due to the continuous efforts of the industry to research, develop and innovate, and to develop towards higher value, the average sales unit price has increased year by year. Taiwan’s finished bicycles are mainly exported to Europe (43.2%) and the United States (29.8%); the European Union and mainland China account for 38.0% and 85.7% of the import market respectively.

2. Bicycle parts:
The bicycle parts market has benefited from the continued expansion of European and American bicycle assembly demand. In 2018, the output value was 64.2 billion yuan, a record high, with an annual increase of 15.5%; the annual growth rate of export value was 11.4%, double-digit growth for two consecutive years, With Europe as the main export market, it ranks second in the EU’s import market share, second to mainland China.

3. Electric bicycles:
Electric bicycles have grown rapidly. In 2018, the output value of 10.9 billion yuan exceeded 10 billion yuan, an annual increase of 50.2%, and the average unit price of nearly three 年 each exceeded 40,000 yuan. Europe and the United States are my country's main export markets for electric bicycles, of which the European Union's import market share is 32.6%, and the US's import market share is 14.8%, both second to mainland China. In view of the future development of electric bicycles towards the integration of the electronics and metal electromechanical industries, Taiwan has this competitive advantage, which will help promote Taiwan to become the kingdom of electric bicycle production.
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​Reference: moea、digitimes