Taiwan's Top 2 Bike Makers Expanding Output to Meet Demand

Taipei, Dec. 17, 2010 (CENS)--To cash in on the recovering demand for high-end bicycles worldwide, Taiwan's top two bike makers, namely Giant Manufacturing Co. and Merida Industry Co., have been actively boosting output at their factories across the Taiwan Straits.

To expand its business deployments in China, Giant has spent US$36 million building its ninth bicycle factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province of China, which is scheduled to be operational in the third quarter of 2011 and turn out over one million bicycles two years later.

In addition, optimistic about the global market for pricy bicycles with carbon fiber frames, Giant has also set up a production line for the high-end bikes in kunshan, which will become operational in the second quarter of 2011 and achieve maximum annual output of 200,000 units in the next three years. The firm now produces about 100,000 units of such bikes in Taiwan per year.

In the meantime, Merida has poured NT$250 million since August 2010 into capacity expansion by procuring new production equipment and improving production lines in its factories in Taiwan and China. The expansion is to be completed in April, 2011, the firm noted.

Encouragingly, Merida has also seen its two reinvested factories turn profitable, which have totally contributed profits of NT$120 million to the firm in the first three quarters of 2010. The figure is six times higher than the corresponding one posted in the same period of 2009.

Merida just reported its sales revenue of NT$1.285 billion for November, up 26.27% from a year earlier, driving up its aggregate revenue to NT$11.074 billion for the past 11 months of 2010, rising 8.94% from a year earlier. The firm indicated that the revenue was mainly driven by strong bicycle sales, which grew 5.05% yearly to 78,500 units in the month.