Shanghai Cycle and the clouds over the bike industry

In between TAIPEI CYCLE and EUROBIKE Show the Chinese bike industry tried to make a show of strength in Shanghai as usual at the beginning of May.

Personally I was very curious how the industry in China has evolved since my last visit in 2019.

The decision was easy, just booked the flight and the hotel, then poked my nose with a Covid test and voila I was in Shanghai. Sounds easy :)

I went there on behalf of Alfred Thun GmbH , to investigate the market, and I can say that this article would not be written if it wasn't for their support. I must mention that the information and opinions shared in this article are mine and they do not have any influence over them.

The weather in Shanghai during the show was same as in Europe these days, rainy and cloudy and it reflected the current situation very nicely. When entering the halls of the old fairground in Pudong we were all wet and in a rush to see what's inside.

It was off the rain and into the sun. So many good people from our industry were there. This time not so many international visitors, some were still afraid to come while others didn't want to spend the money to come as they will not source any time soon. The show had a kind of domestic fair vibe, similar like it was in 2006 when I was there for the first time. Nevertheless I saw so many familiar faces and smiles were all around, we were all glad to see each other even more in these turbulent times. I really hope to have this same feeling next month at EUROBIKE Show , actually I am sure that it will happen again :)

The halls were all full of exhibitors, they deployed two more big tent halls in front. This just might be the show with the biggest number of exhibitors there. As far as visitors it was not so packed but still very much visited by domestic traders to support the domestic industry.

It was very much visible that there were many Russian companies visiting, actually more then ever. They had to find new suppliers in China. Nevertheless they are still managing to get all of the usual important products they need for bike production. Money always finds ways. So their industry is still alive and well, maybe even better as they were protected from overstock arriving months.

As far as products and development of new technology is concerned there were no big breakthroughs. Just some improvements and slight changes to the existing products. But I think nobody was looking for any revolution there just stable supply and to bargain for better conditions.

What was noticeable are many copies of bicycles and products we see presented as new these months. For example there was a exact copy of woom Now model of bicycle shown at one booth. All popular cargo bike designs you see promoted recently were available on show. There were multiple Cowboy look a like e-bikes on show as well, even some modified ones which made sense. As usual everyone is copying #Shimano and #Sram components only this time it was not only the product copy but also the new product line names. It was also noticeable that many companies are now striving to sell derailleur sets and complete ranges, similar as them. Some did a good job of making nice unique products, like Sensah. But for others I can't say so. This copying practice was visible before but not as much as this time. For me this is not a fair business practice and I do not approve of it. Hopefully customers will recognize this and will avoid buying these copies.

There was a sense of real effort from all Asian factories to catch the customers and they were very generous with all kinds of attention. Some told me that they have planned production capacity for the next 10 days and that they need to increase this to be able to plan efficiently and be safe. Hence the attention and discounting just to keep the production going.

The prices these days are not realistic at all. They are not reflecting the actual cost of materials and production with the inflation still going strong while prices are going down. This sure will not last for long.

E-bike part of the show exploded in volume and options as it was to be expected. But it was interesting that there were not many new players, just the usual ones with increased sizes of booths and new products. We had a European representative from Italy OLI eBike Systems with amazing coffee and always interesting Matteo Illari to talk with. Other big brands like Bosch, Brose, Fazua etc didn't go there. But we can be sure that Bafang, Ananda, Vinka and others will be at Eurobike. The average price of e-bikes sold in Europe just might go down in the future. They are going to be sold to the masses and expand further to the East and South Europe. Exclusive info, it seems that Oli has figured this out and are already adapting.

As far as China is concerned it seems to have advanced further, Shanghai is clean, air is better, many electric cars are on the streets, food is good and most importantly people are still kind, welcoming and are not burdened with many things that we are thinking about here.

Their companies don't play fair always but who does these days. We must be vigilant as well.

My take on all of this is that bike industries of #Europe and #China should learn from each other.

Somewhere in the middle we would have a perfect recipe for greatness!