Imports of Chinese-made e-bikes dropped in June thanks to anti-dumping tariffs

The Bicycle Association has sent members the import/export figures for the second quarter of the year, of which BikeBiz can give an overview (members get to see the full reports).

The stats reveal that b-bike imports were 30 percent down year-on-year, but the year-to-date figures are roughly the same as in 2017. "The drop this quarter evens out the large increase seen in Q1," said the Bicycle Association executive director Steve Garidis. 

He added: "E-bikes still represent about 10 per cent of imports by value. On a related note, and perhaps unsurprisingly following the EU anti-dumping case against imports of e-bikes from China, the proportion of e-bikes imported from there dropped significantly in June, although over the last 12 months roughly half of all e-bikes imported still came from China. This is likely to decline further as anti-dumping measures bite."

 Regarding the rest of the stats, Garidis said the second-quarter results were "unremarkable" – they were 5 per cent down on the same quarter in 2017 and still 25 per cent below second quarter levels seen in 2010.. Total value of imports was £83m, 9 per cent down on the same quarter in 2017.

This was "roughly commensurate with the difference in volumes," said Garidis.

"Despite this, year to date (YTD) imports of bicycle units so far in 2018 is 1.44m, around 300k units higher than by the same time last year. YTD value is also very similar (£149m YTD 2018 compared to £163m by the end of June in 2017)."

He concluded: "The BA team continues to believe, in the absence of other data, that these import and export stats are a reasonable proxy for the overall market. However every quarter we come up against anomalies or trends which are difficult to explain or at which we can only guess. All the more reason to welcome the continuing development of our industry retail audit which aims to provide members and the industry with multi-channel UK sales-out data for the first time."

Garidis said a demo version of the stats service will be made available to members soon.