COLOGNE, Germany - After a 6.3% drop in overall domestic deliveries of new bicycles in 2006, Europe's biggest bike market recovered in the first half of 2007. Production and export of bicycles in Germany also increased.
Two days before the start of the IFMA, the German Two-Wheeler Industry Association ZIV presented the market figures for the first half of 2007. According to ZIV some 3,089 million bikes were delivered into the German market between January 1 and June 30. This represents an increase of 0.9% compared to the same period in 2006 when 3,063 million units were distributed.
German Bicycle Market 01-06/2007 (in units)
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Domestic production
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1.78 million
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Imports
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1.64 million
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Exports
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0.33 million
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Total Delivery 01-06/07
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3.09 million
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Source: ZIV
Weather conditions
The market conditions in 2006 and 2007 were completely different. This year can be characterized by a 'non-winter' followed by a dry and sunny spring and early summer season. This caused a collective run on bike shops that led to a serious bottleneck in supplies. According to ZIV GM Rolf Lemberg, however, it was not as bad as communicated by the media.
According to 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. The largest importer was Taiwan (about a quarter of a million units) followed by Thailand and Poland (each 209,000 units). Remarkably, imports from China more than doubled to 100,000 units, despite the hefty anti-dumping tariff of 48.5% on bikes imported from the People's Republic.
Export increase
ZIV is most proud of the big export increase of 35%. Germany exported a total of 330,000 units. The majority of exports went to the Netherlands (approximately 80,000 units) and Austria (more than 60,000 units).
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 decreased sales (compared with the previous period)."
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