THE SOUND OF CHINA'S BICYCLE INDUSTRY? ONE HAND CLAPPING

This article summarizes the current state of the Chinese bicycle market. Although China is the world leader in bicycle production, the use of bicycles in China actually is declining. There currently are no advocates to promote bicycle use in the country, since the biggest bicycle manufacturing companies are either state-owned or export-oriented foreign-owned firms. The state-owned bicycle firms are reluctant to criticize the government, which also runs the Chinese automobile industry. The trade association that represents the bicycle manufacturers has few resources and a mandate limited primarily to trade show organization. Local bicycle retailers are not strong enough to take a leadership role in domestic bike advocacy. Declining markets for utilitarian bicycles, growing competition and oversupply have led to lower bicycle prices not only in China but all over the world. The low Chinese prices have been accompanied by a decline in quality and have affected the viability of bicycle manufacturing in Africa and Latin America.

• Record URL:
  https://go.itdp.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=54888220
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/31056686
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

  115 W 30th Street, Suite 1205
  New York, NY  United States  10001
• Authors:
  • Hook, W
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 20-22
• Serial:
  • Sustainable Transport
  • Issue Number: 14
  • Publisher: Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
  • ISSN: 1536-2523
  • Serial URL: http://www.itdp.org/ST/index.html

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Advocacy groups; Bicycle travel; Bicycles; Bicycling; Governments; Mode choice; Prices; Private enterprise; Trade associations
• Geographic Terms: China
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00935764
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 18 2003 12:00AM