2022 World Bicycle Industry Report: an industry addicted to N + 1
Below are the appendices from a report on the state of the bicycle industry that I am working on.
The WBIA Report 2022 perspective
The World Bicycle Industry Association is a newly formed global body that counts bicycle industry organizations from countries all over the world as its members. The WIBA Global Market Report 2022 report quantifies global supply and demand trends for the industry. The 2022 report was published in 2023 and will be an annual publication going forward.
2021 Global Production (Supply) of Bicycle and E-Bikes
China is the largest supplier
The number of bicycles and e-bikes produced globally grew 11 percent to 193 million units in 2021 (2020: 25.0 percent). China produced 122 million bicycles and e-bikes during the period and accounted for 63 percent of world production.
2021 Global Sales (Demand) of Bicycle and E-Bikes
Slower sales growth due to drop in sales of bicycles
The number of bicycles and e-bikes sold globally grew 2 percent to 136 million units in 2021 (2020: 19.5 percent). The sharply slower growth was due to a decrease in demand for bicycles in the United States and Europe, which accounted for 19 percent and 14 percent of total sales, respectively. Unit sales of bicycles in China were flat. The weak performance of bicycle sales was offset by slow growth in e-bike sales in China, Europe and the United States.
2021 Global Surplus (Inventory) Bicycle and E-Bikes Surplus
Large supply overhang of bicycles and-bikes means weak prices
The surplus (production less sales) of bicycles and e-bikes globally increased 39 percent to 57.3 million units in 2021 (2020: 45 percent). The surplus represented 30 percent of total annual production (2020: 24 percent). Surplus growth of 39 percent in 2021 was 20 times global sales growth of 2 percent during the same period. This implies that there is a large overhang of supply of unsold bicycles and e-bikes in the inventories of manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers and suggests that prices are going to continue to remain weak or trend lower.
2021 Global Bicycle and E-Bike Production Sales Surplus
