January 3, 2001 The mainland China market for bicycles has proven to be an encouraging area for operations, according to Giant Manufacturing Co. and Merida Industry Co., two leading Taiwan bicycle manufacturers. Giant currently has approximately 1,000 sales outlets in mainland China, confirmed a company spokeswoman. "Nearly every province has a Giant sales outlet, except for Shitsang, Chinhai and Gansu," she said. During the first 10 months of 2000, Giant's plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, sold 1.63 million units, an increase of 24 percent from the year before. In contrast, the company's Taiwan plant sold 817,000 bicycles during the same time period, an increase of 22 percent over the year before. Giant expects the Kunshan plant to have produced a total of 2.1 million bicycles for 2000, of which 900,000 will have been absorbed by the mainland market. A Merida representative revealed that the company last year earned NT$3.9 billion (US$118 million), an increase of 18 percent over 1999 figures. The representative confirmed that the company's Shenzhen plant in Guangdong province of mainland China delivered 497,000 units in the January to October period last year, up from 417,000 units during the same period of 1999. The company's Taiwan plant sold 450,000 bicycles in the same time frame, a more dramatic increase from the 380,000 sold in the first ten months of 1999. Merida is also expanding the number of its sales outlets on the mainland, with the current number totaling 500. The company hopes to double that figure by the end of 2001. (back to top) |