Taiwan's bike exports

Taiwan's bike exports down 20% from 2008 high

Preliminary full year figures for 2009 show that Taiwan's bike exports fell about 20% last year to a total of 4।3 million units (2008 = 5.4m units). The drop should be seen in the light of the extraordinary growth in 2008: exports in 2009 were still higher than 2006's figure of about 4 million. On the value side of the equation, the 2009 statistics show that total export value sales dropped only 9.9 percent to 1.25 billion US$. This is a clear result of increased high-end production within the industry: the average sales price for a Taiwan-made bicycle increased from US$256.92 to US$289.38, a gain of 12.6 percent.

While Taiwan bicycle exports to NAFTA countries were down 13.58 percent to 721,689 units (6.97 percent down in value to US$323 million), bike sales to the EU market dropped 22.49 percent to 2.8 million units and 13.61 percent to US$625 million in value. The EU and NAFTA markets are Taiwan's largest customers followed by EFTA (down 21.19 percent to 109,381 units and 13.51 percent down to US$44.6 million in value). The final statistics will be announced by the Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association at the Taipei Show, although only minor adjustments are expected.