After Dumping Duty Drop; A&J Group Re-Opens Vietnam Factory

TAICHUNG, Taiwan – Last week, on July 15, 2010 the 34.5% anti-dumping duty on Vietnam made bikes imported into the European Union was dropped. This prompted A&J Worldwide Group to announce the re-opening of its Vietnam facility based near Ho Chi Minh City.

The re-opening of A&J’s High Ride bicycle factory in Vietnam was revealed last week by A&J CEO Jon Edwards. On questions he said to Bike Europe: “We will open again in Vietnam so we can increase our capacity, but have no intention of moving out of Cambodia!”

A&J Worldwide Group opened its High Ride Vietnam factory in 2003. At that time the 150,000 sq feet facility had 2 production lines capable of producing 800,000 to 1 million bikes as well as automatic and semi-automatic wet and dry painting lines. The factory produced close to 700,000 bicycles a year in 2004 and 2005, mostly destined for the European market.

After the anti-dumping duties on Vietnam made bikes came into force in July 2005, Vietnam’s export numbers dropped heavily. They declined from about 1.5 million bikes in 2004 to less than 7,000 in 2009. It forced A&J to shift their production to Cambodia.

In 2006 A&J Worldwide Group opened Atlantic Cycle Co. Ltd. in the Cambodian Svay Rieng province for the export of bicycles to Europe, Canada, Japan, Norway and the USA. The Cambodian plant is the biggest of all the A&J factories at some 200,000 sq feet with 3 production lines providing capacity for around 1 million bikes per year. Next to complete bicycles, Atlantic Cycle also produces alloy frames.

The bikes produced by A&J Worldwide Group in Cambodia are exported completely duty free (next to no dumping duties also no 14% import duty) to the 27 European Union member states. The country is exempted from all duties by its GSP Plus status; click here for more information on the EU Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)

After the drop of the dumping duties, Vietnam is currently making an effort to be granted the GSP Plus status. In case the European Commission decides to do so A&J Worldwide Group will also be able to export completely duty free bikes produced at the re-opened High Ride bicycle facility in Ho Chi Minh City.
A&J's head office is in Taichung Taiwan. Arthur Shyu, President of A&J Worldwide Group formed the company in 1994 and soon joined the list of Taiwan's top ten volume exporters of complete bicycles.