The bicycle industry urgently needs to consolidate the industrial foundation of foreign trade development

Bicycle exports are booming in 2020, making bicycles a popular foreign trade product after masks. Data from China Bicycle Industry Association shows that since the second quarter of this year, the bicycle industry has been fully resumed work and production, the export situation has picked up, and the operation of the industry has shown a rapid recovery momentum. In June, 5.592 million bicycles were exported, with a year-on-year growth of 30.5%. Exports of us $321 million, a year-on-year increase of 38.8%. The industry is also grappling with several questions: Can parts supply keep pace with booming orders? Whether the capacity of domestic bicycle industry can support such a large order for a long time? What are possible ways to relieve the tightness in parts supply and the pressure on capacity? China Trade News recently interviewed bicycle exporters, relevant industry associations and experts to get some answers.

Overseas orders are still hot and the shortage of spare parts restricts the delivery speed

Huida (Foshan) New energy technology Co., LTD. Products to folding bicycles, electric bicycles. According to the staff of the company, the company's bicycles are first folded to reduce the volume when they are exported, put into the container, and then assembled at the destination. The operation steps of assembly and initiation are very simple. "Our bikes can still be supplied normally, and we usually ship them about 15 days after receiving an order. The importance of the supply chain has become apparent this year, and the lack of money to solve problems when parts supplies are tight is also testing other kinds of accumulation in the industry. The good news is that the company has been in business for a long time and has a good relationship with upstream component suppliers. This good relationship now shows value, which makes the supply of parts more stable and helps to stabilize the company's supply chain." "The official told reporters.

Tianjin bicycle garden trading Co., LTD. Mr. Cheng told reporters that the volume of export orders is good, but the supply of spare parts can not keep up, leading to no time to complete the order.

"At present, the production capacity is limited, the order quantity is small and can be handled as soon as possible, if you order several containers of goods, you can only persuade customers to wait. Not all categories are in short supply, for example, low-end ordinary models are in good supply, mainly high-end products in short supply. But when we export, we still hope to receive as many orders of high-end category as possible, after all, high-end category can better represent the image and future trend of Chinese manufacturing." Cao Zuoquan, general manager of the Marketing Department of Tianjin Chaoke Trading Co., LTD., told reporters, "As far as I can tell, the products that can be received within 15 days are definitely low-end ones. In our high-end category, we have to wait 80 to 90 days before we can ship them." While he was busy, he also heard that some foreign countries introduced subsidy policies to buy bicycles when he talked with his peers.

Pingxiang County in Hebei province is famous for its buggy, but it also produces adult bicycles. Pingxiang County Jubao car Industry Co., LTD. Not only sells folding bikes that are easy to fold and assemble, but also sells other models. According to Zhang Wanxing, sales manager of the company, while other models are not as easy to assemble as folding cars, the assembly process is still relatively simple for consumers. "At present, foreign orders are still hot, the company's orders are scheduled to more than two months later, but it is difficult to purchase spare parts. In the past, different countries have different requirements for bicycle standards. We try our best to meet the requirements so as to export smoothly. "Now foreign quality requirements for bicycles are as usual, no improvement and no reduction." "As far as I know, most of the company's customers are exported by sea, and it is still difficult to book space by sea," Zhang said.

The lack of capacity is a combination of factors

The shortage of spare parts has witnessed the shortage of bicycle production capacity in China. The deputy secretary general of the Shenzhen Bicycle Industry Association Sally told reporters that there are many reasons behind the shortage of bicycle production capacity.

"Bike-sharing is an influential factor. "The production of Shared bikes will itself take up some of the capacity, preventing bicycle companies from rapidly expanding their capacity to produce non-shared bikes." "It is not expected that the overseas order outbreak will last until the middle of next year, when overseas demand may be saturated," Said Sally. That's why some companies in the industry have been cautious not to rush to expand capacity."

In Her view, high-end bicycle transmission systems are mainly imported, but it is difficult to import such transmission systems at present, which is also a reason for the inability to expand production capacity. Shimano is a well-known company in the field of bicycle transmission systems. The outbreak has limited production at some of its factories, and some orders for bicycle transmission systems could take up to a year to arrive. The production and sales of domestic bicycle enterprises that import its transmission system are therefore affected." Sally mentioned that there are also companies in China that manufacture bicycle transmission systems. Although their strength is not as good as that of Japanese companies, the epidemic has brought a lot of related demand, which is a driving force and a good opportunity for such companies.

Experts offer advice to ease productivity pressure

It is understood that in recent years, the bicycle market demand in Southeast Asian countries is considerable, coupled with lower labor costs and other advantages, to attract some bicycle companies to transfer their production capacity to Southeast Asia. "The lack of domestic bicycle production capacity shows that the industrial foundation for the development of foreign trade in this industry is not solid." Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stressed to reporters that some industries had been transferred to Southeast Asian countries in the past, but now we should pay more attention to the security of the industrial chain, giving consideration to both economy and security.

According to a survey conducted by the Shenzhen Bicycle Industry Association, Which she works for, some other industries are not as prosperous as the bicycle industry and have spare capacity due to the impact of the epidemic. "One of the companies found that some of their machines used to make other products were perfectly fine for making bicycle parts, so they borrowed their equipment to make relevant parts. There are three to five local bicycle companies in Shenzhen that are experimenting with sharing machines and sharing employees in this way, thus expanding their bicycle capacity." "There are limitations to this kind of experiment," warns Sally. "If two companies are on the same campus, they can easily borrow machines. If the two enterprises are not in the same park, it is more inconvenient, because it involves the delivery of parts, logistics costs and other bottlenecks."