Taiwan’s exports of bicycles and bicycle parts last year increased 23.11 percent annually to US$6.15 billion from US$4.99 billion the previous year, with an average annual increase of 8.2 percent over the past 10 years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday, citing the latest customs statistics.
Bicycle parts accounted for 48 percent of the industry’s total exports, rising 26.65 percent year-on-year to US$2.95 billion, with outbound shipments of bicycle parts growing 12.7 percent annually on average in the past 10 years, the data showed.
Exports of traditional bicycles totaled US$1.63 billion last year, up 22.4 percent from 2021, but their share of the industry’s total exports fell to 26.6 percent from 26.7 percent in 2021 and from 67.5 percent in 2012 amid growing uptake of bicycle-sharing systems, the ministry said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Exports of electric bicycles last year rose 17.7 percent annually to US$1.56 billion. The value of outbound shipments grew 57.5 percent since 2012, due mainly to a rapid growth in European and US markets, as well as the products having higher selling prices, the ministry said.
Electric bicycles accounted for 25.4 percent of the industry’s overall exports last year, compared with 26.6 percent in 2021.
The US, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and China were the top five destinations for Taiwanese bicycles and bicycle parts last year, accounting for 63.6 percent of the industry’s total exports.
The US continued to be the largest export market last year for traditional bicycle manufacturers, and the Netherlands remained the largest market for electric bicycles, while most of bicycle-related shipments to Germany were bicycle parts.
The ministry said Taiwan’s electric bicycles have increased their market share in the US, the EU and China, thanks to more Taiwanese firms moving production of high-end models back home amid US-China trade tensions.
However, Taiwan faces rising competition from Cambodia, as the Southeast Asian country has benefited from better tariff terms for bicycle exports to Europe and the US, which have led several European and US brands to set up production bases there, the ministry said.
The EU’s imports of bicycles from Cambodia exceeded those from Taiwan for the first time in 2021, it added.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS