Anti-Dumping Proceedings Didn’t Stop Import Flood

LUXEMBOURG (August 4) - China became in 2004 the EU’s most important bicycle supplier and was dodging the anti-dumping duties in any possible way. The People’s Republic shipped a total of 2,407,455 complete bicycles to the EU; 19.3% more than in 2003. Vietnam made another major leap with a 33% increase in export volume to the EU, despite the in 2004 initiated anti-dumping proceedings. EU import volumes were up, whilst the downward spiral of average import values seemed to have come to a halt. The opening of a market of 105 million consumers on 1st May has passed the European bicycle industry completely by. These are the main facts that can be deduced from Eurostat’s EU bicycle statistics 2004. Last year, the 25 EU member states imported 16.46 million bicycles. That is 11.4% more than in 2003. With that the import from EU countries increased with only 1.3% for a total of almost 6.9 million. The import from non-European countries grew a lot stronger, i.e. almost 20% to a total of more than 9.57 million. As a result, the European share in total imports amounted to some 42%. For a complete report, see Bike Europe’s August edition.