SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgarian bicycle makers like Maxcom with its brand new facility pictured here, are expecting a 40% jump in production this year. This growth is related to the official permission from Brussels to import Chinese parts without paying for the 48.5% anti circumvention duty. A remarkable EU decision because previously all exemptions on the anti circumvention duty were granted only to individual bike manufacturers.
The news on the exemption for the entire Bulgarian industry leaves questions as to what will happen when the Polish, Romanian or the German industry will apply for the anti circumvention exemption? Will this bring about a hollowing out of this measure and result in the end anti circumvention as well as the anti dumping duties on China made parts and bikes?
One year of investigation
After joining the EU, Bulgarian bike manufacturers filed a request for exemption of the anti circumvention duty at the European Commission. It took the Commission over a year to check this request and exemption was granted last week. The news on the exemption for the entire Bulgarian industry was reported by the newspaper Sofia Echo last Monday.
Bulgarian bike makers are exempted of the 48.5% anti circumvention duty as long as the Chinese components do not exceed 60% of the ex-works price of the exported bicycle.
Annual production
Last years 450,000 bicycles were produced in Bulgaria, of which 100 000 were sold locally. The rest of the production was exported the EU, as well as Russia, Serbia and Macedonia.
Bulgaria has six bicycle manufacturers: Cross, Leader-96, Maxcom, Robifir Bike, Velomania and Balkanvelo. They are all member of the Association of Bicycle Producers in Bulgaria (ABPB).
Maxcom Ltd. recently started operations at their brand new facility in which the company invested € 15 million. Next to 3 assembly lines and a paint shop with 4 electrostatic disks, the factory covers over 27,000 m² and has a production capacity of 500,000 units annually. The company is owned by Maxim Mitkov and is producing under its own ‘Sprint’ brand, but is for the biggest part producing bikes on an OEM basis.
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