Dumping Speculations: China Made Bikes Take Up 1/3 of Swiss Market

ZURICH, Switzerland – Will the EU be flooded with China made bikes once the current dumping duty on these bikes expires mid July 2010? An indication of a future scenario once the anti-dumping duties are dropped can be found in Switzerland where China made bikes are able to enter the market duty free. Swiss 2009 market data indicates a strong import growth with China taking up one third of the total volume.

The financial crisis didn’t hamper bike sales in Switzerland last year. According to the import statistics of the Swiss Federal Customs Administration and to a survey conducted at the remaining Swiss bike makers, 449,877 bikes were brought to the market last year. This number is 3.5% higher than in 2008 and has in this millennium never before reached this level. In particular, the number of imported bikes showed considerable growth with a plus of 4.1% in 2009. The total import volume stood at 404,077 units; breaking the 400k mark for the first time since the end of the Mountainbike boom.

China is Switzerland’s biggest bicycle supplier. In 2009 132,111 bikes came from the People’s Republic taking up 32.6% of the total import volume. The Chinese bikes entered the country for an average import value of € 111.00. The rest of the imported bicycles are considerably more expensive. The average import value of the total import volume amounts to € 290.00 in 2009. Compared to 2008, the average import value increased 16.1%.

Until 2005, Taiwan was the number one bike supplier to Switzerland. In 2006 that position was taken over by China. In 2007 China exported twice as many bikes as Taiwan to Switzerland (131,000 versus 72,000).

Before the current anti-dumping measures expire next July, the European Commission has to publish a ’notice of impending expiry’ in the Official Journal of the European Union. In other dumping matters such a notice has been issued five to nine months before the actual expiry.

The notice of impending expiry is not yet published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Once this publication took place, the European Bicycle Manufacturers’ Association (EBMA) can file a request for a new five year term of dumping duties. The very first European anti-dumping measures against bicycle imports were proclaimed in 1993.

In 2008 the 27 European Union member states imported close to 736,000 bicycles from China with which the country ranked as the number 3 bike supplier to the EU. With that volume China had a 7.8% share in the total number of bikes imported from outside the European Union.

E-Bikes are not included in the above mentioned 2009 Swiss market data. According to estimates by the Swiss promotion organization for electric vehicles, Newride, sales of electric bicycles almost doubled last year in Switzerland; from 13,000 in 2008 to 24,000 in 2009. Newride forecasts that demand will continue to grow for the next years.

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