Edit | Yu Bin
Produced by | Chaoqi Network "Yu see column"
With the development of science and technology and the progress of society, the mainland has already entered the era of automobile economy, people's work and life are more and more inseparable from the car, the cars all over the streets and alleys seem to convey to us such a message: the traditional bicycle and its industry will gradually become marginalized.
However, the reality is just the opposite, now the concept of green travel has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the bicycle industry has not become the expected sunset industry, but in the new economic wave to seize the new opportunities for development.
Revitalized, industry veterans ushered in a new outlet for accelerated development
The mainland has always been known as the kingdom of bicycles, the vast bicycle army in the city has also constituted a beautiful urban landscape, although the bicycle is no longer the main force of people's daily transportation, but now it is still one of the more used transportation methods, such as a large number of shared bicycles, and from 2020, the export of domestic bicycles and their parts has shown a significant growth trend.
According to data from the China Bicycle Association, in 2020 alone, the domestic bicycle production will reach more than 80 million units, and the production capacity advantage in the world is very obvious, while the mainland also supplies more than 60% of the world's bicycle import and export trade, and customs data also shows that the export volume of mainland bicycles last year was close to 70 million, an increase of nearly 15% year-on-year, and the export amount reached more than 5 billion US dollars, an increase of 40.2% year-on-year.
Last year, the bicycle industry not only achieved the volume and price of exports, but also the increase in export amount was much higher than the increase in export volume, which not only showed that the export unit price of bicycles was increasing, but also meant that the efforts of enterprises to enter the high-end market were not in vain, and in general, it has obtained phased achievements and gains, especially the export of high-value-added bicycles in the past two years has increased rapidly, such as mountain bikes, competition bicycles, electric power bicycles and other high-end models.
Driven by various favorable factors, large domestic bicycle companies have achieved a comprehensive improvement in performance, such as Tianjin Golden Wheel Bicycle in 2020 sales revenue of more than 3 billion yuan, last year's sales soared to 5 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 70%, the company's marketing network covers more than 120 countries and regions around the world, the annual output of 2 million bicycles almost all for export.
Green and healthy, there are a variety of choices for transportation
Even in the era of economic globalization, bicycles have always been one of the most important and environmentally friendly means of transportation for people, for example, some people are considering safety, and under the influence of repeated epidemics, the number of people who avoid public transportation and choose bicycles for short-distance transportation is gradually increasing.
Some people are considering from the aspect of health, now more and more people choose to travel by bicycle, which can not only exercise, but also save money, if the pace of life of residents is healthier, then their expenditure on medical projects is less, so that invisibly enhance the consumption power of residents, for ordinary people, after all, physical health is the best way to save money.
Some people are from an economic point of view, such as the popularity of shared bicycles has further stimulated the increase in bicycle sales, the cumulative number of shared bicycles in Beijing in the first half of last year reached more than 360 million person-times, an increase of 53.42% year-on-year, which shows that many people will combine personal reality and flexibly choose diversified means of transportation, including bicycles, when traveling, because this can directly save a lot of personal and family expenses.
Whatever the purpose, today's small bicycles contribute no small amount of social and economic contribution, such as the American Cyclist Union's research showing that the bicycle industry contributes nearly $140 billion in production and $18 billion in taxes to the U.S. economy, while also providing 1 million jobs for the labor market.
And bicycles can also play a better role in alleviating the pressure of urban traffic, to make a simple analogy, traffic is like the blood vessels of the economy, and the blood vessels will naturally accelerate the development of the economy after they are unblocked.
"Yu see column" believes that bicycles and cars are not two or the other, non-one-or relationship, the diversification of means of transport will not harm the development of the car and bicycle industry, on the contrary, people can have these two means of transport at the same time, and according to their own situation to flexibly choose, the diversification of means of transport to promote the overall coordinated development of the social economy is also very helpful, now the popular concept of low-carbon travel life is more prominent in the existence of the bicycle industry.
Now many cities on the right of way of bicycles are gradually increasing, all over the construction of a lot of bicycle lanes, such as Beijing opened two years ago bicycle lanes, the cumulative traffic has exceeded 3 million people, we can foresee that the future of the bicycle industry will not only not disappear, but will accelerate growth on the new track, and now some European and American countries have introduced subsidies for car purchases, which will naturally further promote the growth of bicycle sales.
The opportunity must not be missed, and domestic enterprises have ushered in a good opportunity for latecomers to catch up
Since last year, the upstream raw material prices of the bicycle industry have begun to rise all the way, affected by this, the price of bicycle parts is also rising, and unlike in the past, this round of price increases has been affected by global inflation, so it has lasted for a long time, which has brought a lot of operating pressure to those low-end bicycle manufacturers.
Because of the fierce competition in the industry, it is difficult for these companies to transfer the pressure of rising costs to the downstream terminal consumer market, compared with the high-end bicycle companies due to relatively high operating profits, their ability to digest price increases is relatively strong, so the impact is relatively small.
For example, Phoenix Bicycle, an established company, exported about 4 million bicycles last year, accounting for about 30% of the company's total sales, of which bicycles exported to developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan accounted for more than 60%, not only the order volume is growing rapidly, but also its high-end products in the market are in short supply, and the current orders have been arranged to the second half of the year.
"Yu See Column" believes that the price increase has also forced more companies to actively meet the market demand, start to lay out the high-end market, while digesting the adverse effects of raw material price increases, and strive to enhance the competitive strength of the enterprises themselves, which in turn has promoted the entire industry to continue to take the road of high value-added and high-end brands.
However, in the future, if the bicycle industry wants to win high-quality development, it is also necessary to solve the supply chain problem of bicycle transmissions, the most critical components of this bicycle are now mainly monopolized by Japanese Shimano, American SpeedLink and other enterprises, and nearly 80% of the transmissions in the mainland need to be imported.
At present, the cost of transmission accounts for nearly 40% of the total cost of the vehicle, if the domestic components can be completely replaced, the mainland's bicycle industry will usher in leapfrog development, and the company's revenue, profit and competitiveness will inevitably jump to a new level.
Nowadays, domestic bicycle parts companies are ushering in a golden opportunity, in the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the advocacy of low-carbon green sustainable environment, people's short-distance travel mode has also changed, many people have given up public transportation, choose bicycles this convenient and fast way of travel.
The global demand for bicycles has a blowout, many companies are working overtime to meet the needs of the market, and at this time the transmission supply of foreign companies has been unable to meet the urgent needs of domestic enterprises, its delivery cycle has been dragged out for a long time, some orders of the delivery cycle is as long as one or two years, at this time the market is facing a large supply gap.
Correspondingly, the advantages of domestic parts supply enterprises began to appear, domestic transmission products can be about 30% cheaper on average in price, and can complete delivery in a short period of time, in terms of timeliness can ensure the stability and timeliness of supply, so domestic bicycle companies began to gradually use domestic components to replace imported products.
This has brought huge development opportunities to domestic parts supply enterprises, and at the same time, market demand has also stimulated local enterprises to continuously improve their technical level and research and development capabilities, and local enterprises can take advantage of this opportunity to grasp the rare upward opportunities and future development initiatives of the key parts and components industry.
For example, Blueprint Controller Technology Company took this opportunity to become a supplier of domestic brands such as Phoenix and Xidesheng and many overseas customers, and the company developed and designed more than 200 kinds of transmissions, with monthly shipments of more than 200,000 sets, and products serving more than 200 customers around the world.
Opportunities will always be left to prepared enterprises, in the face of the gratifying export situation, domestic enterprises should also think more about the future of the industry and the growth of the brand, that is, how to get out of a suitable for their own brand high-end development road.
In recent years, on the basis of stabilizing existing models and production, domestic enterprises should also pay close attention to market demand, develop and produce corresponding products, such as electric assisted bicycles in recent years, which are becoming more and more popular, and their market share and demand have also shown a gradual expansion trend.
For example, 40% of the bicycle market in the Netherlands has been occupied by electric mopeds, and the same is true in other European countries, which has brought new business opportunities to domestic vehicle and parts supply companies, and many companies have long targeted this new track.
At the same time, networking, digitalization, intelligence, modularization and other emerging technologies will also play a greater role in the bicycle industry, like new energy vehicles, the intelligent network ecosystem in the field of bicycles has been the first signs, the first results, the iterative upgrading of products naturally also gives domestic enterprises the opportunity to overtake in the corner.
epilogue
With the impact of the epidemic and the prevalence of the concept of healthy living, the bicycle industry has been rejuvenated like a dead wood in the spring, and flexible and lightweight bicycles have played an increasingly important role in solving the "last mile" of transportation.
However, everything is not achieved quickly, and the road to brand and technology transcendence will never be smooth and easy, such as Japan's Shimano is a transmission manufacturing company with a history of more than 100 years, with rich industry experience.
Therefore, on the road of diversification and high-end development, domestic enterprises are still relatively young, and they still need to be steady and steady, move to the camp, and also use continuous technological innovation and product iteration to maintain extraordinary competitive advantages.