China’s bicycle-sharing boom poses hazards for manufacturers

Yu Yuefeng, a managing director at Phoenix, China’s oldest bicycle maker, said that domestic sales dropped last year when these apps, which allow consumers to pick up and drop off their bikes anywhere, started to gain favour.

“Bicycle shop owners say that sales are slower this year and some are shutting down,” he said last week at the Canton Fair, China’s biggest trade show, in Guangzhou. “Some factories are switching to produce shared bikes and this is driving up the price of components and causing problems in the supply chain.”

Shanghai-based Phoenix, which has been producing bicycles for 120 years, hoped that the growing focus on healthy living and fitness in China would help them reverse a long-term sales decline.

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