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.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS