BRUSSELS, Belgium - Eurostat import figures for the first nine months of 2019 clearly point to the fact that Taiwan is working hard to take over China's role in supplying electric bicycles to EU countries. The industry of the island off the coast of China transformed successfully to e-bikes as it is ‘electrifying’ rapidly. This is reflected in Eurostat data indicating that the EU import of made in Taiwan e-bikes is accelerating. The import data also clearly signals that there’s a big difference between the e-bikes imported from China and those made in Taiwan.
What the Eurostat import data for the first nine months of last year above all points to, is the effectiveness of the by mid-January 2019 instigated anti-dumping measures on e-bikes imported from China. In particular when taking into account that this import stood for the whole year of 2018 at about 800,000 e-bikes. That dropped to an almost insignificant level of 92,000 units in the first nine months of 2019 indicating that for the whole of last year the total import from China will stand only at about 100,000 units.
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Taiwan transformed successfully to e-bikes as it is ‘electrifying’ rapidly. This is reflected in Eurostat data indicating that the EU import of made in Taiwan e-bikes is accelerating
Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties The on 17 January 2019 imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on e-bikes imported from China apply to all kinds of electric bicycles; from entry-level to high-end ones as well as for regular 250 Watt models and speed pedelecs. The European Commission instigated company specific dumping duties that vary from 73.4 percent for the Bodo Vehicle Group, 24.6 percent for Giant Electric Vehicle to 33.4 percent for the majority of Chinese e-bike exporters.
The position of Taiwan and Vietnam
What the latest Eurostat data also makes clear is that Taiwan and Taiwan based companies operating in Vietnam (like A&J) are stepping in to take-over China’s role as EU biggest e-bike supplier. Whether the companies involved in this take-over are with that responding to what the 2018 Taipei Cycle Forum was all about, remains for now unclear. But fact is that this Forum pointed exactly to the transition to e-bikes that’s now happening at Taiwan’s bike industry.
In the first nine months of 2019 about 289,000 e-bikes were imported from Taiwan; up 89 percent on the 2018 total for the same period. From Vietnam about 127,000 units were imported. When the imports from the two countries are added together, the total stands at 416,000 e-bikes. That is more than half of the total that was imported from China in 2018.
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Top-10 Supplying Countries
More import from Vietnam
The expectation is that more made in Vietnam e-bikes will be imported into the European Union in the next years. That’s in the first place caused by the Vietnam – EU free trade agreement as well as lucrative local content rules that the European Union implies for e-bikes made in Vietnam that are exported to the EU. For more on that see Bike Europe’s (free of charge) “Whitepaper on all e-bike dumping implications.” It offers guidelines on the consequences of shifting the e-bike production destined for Europe from China to other Asian countries or to one of the European Union member states.
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EU-28 E-Bike Imports First Half 2019 / 2018
Cambodia
The second reason for the expectation that more e-bikes from Vietnam are to be imported into the EU, is in the fact that neighboring Cambodia is about to lose its EU duty free import status. The European Commission has announced that it is taking the first steps in removing the trade preferences Cambodia now holds for its trade with the EU.
