EsFitness equipment supply chains appear to be struggling to deal with the continued boom in demand driven by the pandemic. Prices for bicycles in parts of the U.S. have increased by 10-15% in late 2020 as a result according to Human Powered solutions, Axios reports, with further increases to come as a result of raw material and freight cost inflation.
The latter is consistent with what is being seen across manufacturing industries, as outlined in Panjiva’s research of March 10. That’s proving to be a challenge with Pacific Cycles owner Dorel Industries’ CEO, Martin Schwartz, stating “higher FOB (free on board) costs, freight and foreign exchange, specifically the stronger RMB, are only being partially covered by price increases to retailers“, though its Cycle Sports Group has done better.
Panjiva’s data shows U.S. imports of bicycles climbed 61.1% higher year over year in Q4’20 and by a further 26.3% in January in what is normally the off peak season for shipments as importers sought to meet demand.
There’s also been a shift in sourcing, with increased imports from outside the traditional centers of mainland China and Taiwan. Shipments from outside those two countries reached 17.5% of the total in Q4’20 compared to 4.7% in 2018 including imports from Cambodia and Vietnam.
Source: Panjiva
U.S. seaborne imports of completed bicycles and components have continued to accelerate in February, with the result that imports in January and February combined climbed 69.2% higher year over year. When including components that figure rises to 73.9% year over year growth in the first two months of 2021.
The most recent expansion has been led by a 248% surge in imports linked to Roth Distributing’s Specialized brand, followed by a 233.3% increase in shipments linked to Dynacraft. Others have been slowing their shipments with imports linked to Kent and Giant rising by just 7.1% and 6.5% respectively in the past two months after increasing at a double-digit rate in Q4’20.
Source: Panjiva
