COLOGNE, Germany – After a 6.3% drop in the 2006 overall domestic deliveries of new bicycles, Europe’s biggest bike market recovered in the first half of 2007. Also the production and export of bicycles in Germany increased.
Two days before the start of the IFMA, the German Two-Wheeler Industry Association ZIV presented the market figures on the first half of 2007. According to the ZIV some 3,089 million bikes were delivered into the German market between January 1 and June 30. This represents a plus of 0.9% compared to the same period in 2006 when 3,063 million units were distributed.
The market conditions between 2006 and 2007 were completely different. This year can be characterized by a ‘no-winter’ followed by a dry and sunny spring and early summer season. This caused a collective run on the bike shops which led to a serious bottleneck in supplies. According to ZIV-GM Rolf Lemberg it was not as bad as communicated by the media.
According to the ZIV, bicycle production in Germany increased 4.1% to 1.78 million units during the first six months of 2007. That’s exactly the same number as in 2005. Bike imports into Germany increased 2.7% to a total of 1.64 million units. Largest importer was Taiwan (about a quarter of a million units) followed by Thailand and Poland (each 209,000 units). Remarkable is that the import from China more than doubled to 100,000 units, despite the big anti-dumping rate of 48.5% on bikes imported from the Peoples Republic.
The ZIV is most proud of the big export increase by 35%. Germany exported a total of 330,000 units. The majority of the export went to neighboring Netherlands (approximately 80,000 units) and Austria (more than 60,000 units).
The ZIV does not want to make a forecast for 2007. ZIV-GM Rolf Lemberg only notes that: “In the second half of June the market development was not as successful as in the first half of 2007. For the first time we had to report about (editor’s note: compared with the previous period) decreasing sales.”
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- For related items on Germany, click here
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