Giant Steps Up Rim Production

TAICHUNG, Taiwan – Via its subsidiary Giant Light Metal Technology, Giant Bicycles will step up its investments to manufacture rims for bicycles, e-bikes and heavy-duty motorcycles in 2012. According to Giant’s chairman King Liu, the company started to ship small orders of motorcycle rims in the second half of 2011 and expects orders to grow in 2012.

Giant invests between 5.2 and 7.8 million euro to expand its production of bicycle and motorcycle rim plant in the Jiangsu province of mainland China.

Giant announced the start of the rim production in 2010 as a joint project in partnership with Alpina Raggi SpA from Lomagna, Italy. This partnership involves the production and distribution of superlight weight, dimpled rims, spokes and nipples for e-bikes.

The company is also expanding the capacity of its other manufacturing facilities in China, including the Tianjin plant, which will increase its annual capacity to three million bicycles per year. The Chengdu factory will double its capacity to 600,000 units in 2013.

The Chinese market already accounted for 24% of Giant’s total revenue in 2010, and in the first 11 months of 2011 sales in the Chinese market increased by 56%, overtaking shipments to the US.