TAIPEI, Taiwan (BRAIN)—Taiwan manufacturers enjoyed a solid start to 2010 with most seeing double digit increases in January revenue.
Giant, the island’s largest bike manufacturer, was up 11.55 percent in January—from $42.7 million in 2009 to $47.6 million for the same month in 2010.
Merida, the No.2 manufacturer, reported a 26.2 percent jump in revenue for the first month of the year. In 2009, Merida had sales of $24.3 million compared with $30.7 million in 2010.
At $9.28 million, Ideal’s January revenue was virtually on par with the same month in January 2009.
Tire manufacturers also did well in January. Kenda’s revenue was up 32 percent, from $9 million in 2009 to $11.9 million this year. Revenue skyrocketed 73 percent for Cheng Shin Rubber, parent company of Maxxis International. The rubber company reported revenue of $45 million in January. That’s up from $25.9 million for the same month last year.
These results come after a particularly tough fourth quarter of 2009 for bike business in Taiwan. Giant ended the year down 9 percent, while Merida dipped 23 percent from 2008. Ideal ended the year up 21 percent, but that was mostly due to the company righting itself from poor performance the year before, Ideal officials have said.
(All conversions assume the January 31, 2010 exchange rate of $1=NT$32.0205).
—Nicole Formosa
