On Monday 2 October, the European Bicycle Manufacturers Association (EBMA) filed an EU anti-dumping complaint to stop the dumping of Chinese e-bikes.
Imports into the EU of e-bikes from China increased from virtually zero in 2010 to a level that is likely to be over 800,000 in 2017. European manufacturers explain that Chinese imports in 2016 showed a massive 40% volume growth compared to the previous year and in the first seven months of 2017 already exceeded the entire 2016 import volume, with more than 430,000 units, representing 70% of all e-bikes imported from outside Europe.
Faced with the massive dumping of Chinese e-bikes sold on the open market at knockdown prices that are less than the production costs, thanks to the subsidies they receive, the EBMA is calling for urgent import registration and anti-dumping measures.
European manufacturers European explained that they had invented the Electrically Power Assisted Cycles (EPAC) pedal technology and the most recent innovation, the centre engine system but that Chinese dumping was jeopardising over 90,000 direct and indirect skilled workers, as well as the EU bicycle industry investments of over €1 billion in e-bike development in 2016 alone.
According to data from the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry, e-bike production capacities in China were at 51 million units in 2016 and consumption at 28 million, meaning there exists a Chinese overcapacity of 23 million e-bikes, which is more than ten times total European demand.
In contrast, total 2016 EU production was just over 1 million e-bikes, which though an increase of 13% on the previous year, was much less than the growth of EU consumption because of the flood of dumped cut-price Chinese e-bikes.
The EMBA warns that, “Overall, the European market is booming, but the explosion in growth of dumped Chinese e-bikes is rapidly taking away market share from the EU producers, and will annihilate European production within only a few years if legitimate trade defence measures are not imposed by the EU”.
It concludes that, “The European Commission must stop China dumping e-bikes and immediately register imports so anti-dumping duties can be applied retroactively… Anti-dumping measures are clearly in the EU’s interest because e-bikes are a strategic, innovative industry for Europe’s green and smart e-mobility future, and European consumers and suppliers all want local EU production to prosper”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)