Smuggling of China Made Bicycles Kills Pakistan Industry

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The Pakistani bicycle production is under heavy pressure facing a huge overcapacity. In 2011 the total production declined by more than 25% to 284,865 units related to 2010. In 2006 the Pakistani bicycle industry still had an output of 449,400 units while the total capacity is 1.45 million bicycles per year.

The downturn in bicycle production is a result of a trend to use more motorcycles instead of bicycles in Pakistan. According to local retailers people prefer light motorcycle over bicycles, even for a short distance. As claimed by the retailers the mass smuggling of very cheap Chinese bicycles is another reason for the decline in production. They urged the government to take appropriate measures to save the indigenous bicycle industry.

Although Pakistan is still regarded an important manufacturer of bicycles the usage per capita is very low as compared to countries like India and China. Only 20 years ago it was common to have at least one bicycle in every household. At that time children used bicycles for school going, and for the purpose of distributing al sorts of products. In the last decade people shifted to motorcycles.

This resulted in a sharp decrease in demand of bicycles across the country and ultimately the production of the bicycles dropped sharply, especially during the last decade.