Friday, 29 March 2024
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Is electric bike market to be subject to anti-dumping blow on Chinese imports?

It has been revealed that China’s Chamber of Commerce for import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products has held an emergency meeting in relation to a proposed anti-dumping charge on electric bikes.

Industry sources have spoken to CyclingIndustry.News on the subject, suggesting that a 30% anti-dumping charge on both e-bikes and speed e-bikes may be on the discussion table for Chinese exports into Europe and as soon as Summer 2017.

Believing that an application has been submitted to the European Commission, the Chinese Commerce chamber is said to have met on the 22nd of this month to discuss strategy if a charge came to fruition. The European Commission could proceed with the application on notice as short as 45 days.

UPDATE: At present such an application is not yet visible on the EC website, which could indicate an industry rumour that has got out of hand. Indeed, CONEBI has now indicated that they believe there to be no substance in China’s claims. Such a false alarm has occurred before now.

Should a charge come to fruition, the dumping tariff would likely prompt an exodus of electric bike production lines from China, something CyclingIndustry.news has learned one manufacturer of 2,000,000 bikes a year out east is already assessing.

Another guaranteed outcome of such a duty on imports from China would be a significant retail price increase, something which the UK market in particular would not welcome during a time of significant growth in sub £1,000 sales. Specialist distributors such as EBC and e-bike dedicated retailer 50 Cycles have both introduced house brands in recent times to capture the entry-level customer. CI.N will have more information on these launched in the debut Trade Journal, which UK business can subscribe to here.

The European Bicycle Manufacturers’ Association has denied claims that it was the one to have submitted the claim to the European Commission, reports Bike-Eu.

CyclingIndustry.News is looking closer at this topic, so if your business relies heavily on imported electric bikes, stay tuned. We have more reading on the topic and recent proposals here.

You can further follow the electric bike market’s movements on our dedicated pedal-assisted page.