Chinese New Year, Coronavirus, and more...

The Chinese New Year for 2020 officially begins this week on January 24th. Expect most of the bicycle industry in Taiwan, China, and Vietnam to go on holiday for at least one to two weeks. This will be a great time to get work done with the reduction of emails from all your different suppliers. Like previous years, Chinese New Year is notorious for slowing down production time and causing delays. Brand managers need to remain vigilant in overseeing their projects move forward after the CNY holiday.

China is experiencing one of the worst viral outbreaks known as a strain of Coronavirus, similar to the SARS epidemic several years ago. Almost all of the manufacturers that Oerus regularly works with in Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province, and Tianjin have disbanded their workforce ahead of schedule for Chinese New Year in consideration of the outbreak. What does this mean for the bicycle business? We expect very few visits by brand representatives to China for meetings in the next few months depending how serious the outbreak becomes. In turn, we will be busy handling different requests for brands that need representation in China for production and quality control measures.

As there is only a week left of January 2020, time is flying by and the 2020 Taipei Cycle Show is near. The Taiwan Bike Show officially begins on March 4 and ends on March 7. Start making your plans to visit and do remember to contact Oerus to schedule a meeting time to discuss any of your current supply chain and sourcing needs!