By CGTN's Ning Hong
Every 15 seconds, a bicycle comes fresh off the production line and ready for use. This is the production line of Tianjin Fushida group, one of China’s largest bike manufacturers.
For every eight bikes made in the world, one is from here. And the ratio is set to increase. Orders from OFO, a bike-sharing company, are expected to double their output.
This production line can make 2,000 bikes a day, and provides jobs for 90 people.
Workers assembling OFO bikes. /CGTN Photo
Just half a year ago, bicycle manufacturers used to struggle to survive but now business is booming and workers are even seeing their wages rise.
According to Lu Bin, the production manager of the plant, the wages of workers have risen by 25 percent since last year.
This is a future that no one really expected. Not even the CEO.
“Back in 2015, we realized that this new model of leasing would have an impact. But the speed of market growth during the past half a year was beyond our imagination,” said Lu.
The plant's production manager Lu Bin. /CGTN Photo
Lu said bike-sharing has more requirements on the quality of bikes, such as durability and comfort, as well as the anti-theft technology, which has pushed his company to introduce more innovations that hadn’t been used on ordinary bikes before, such as the GPS positioning system and solid tires.
The company is also set to expand production lines with the capacity to build 10 million bicycles a year.
Bicycle manufacturers have been competing in customized products for decades, yet the bike-sharing trend has made mass production of bikes possible.
An overhead shot of the factory. /CGTN Photo
Lu thinks this is an opportunity: “Production for this kind of bicycles is heading towards automation and intelligent manufacturing.”
Lu is not worried that the bike-sharing culture will squeeze out other orders. In fact he hopes a popular cycling culture will lead to more customization requirements. And more importantly, it looks like bicycles might just be dominating the streets of major Chinese cities again.
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