KARACHI, Aug 5: Seven Chinese bike assemblers in the country have produced around 70,000 units in 2002-2003 as a result of good response from lower and middle group people owing mainly to their low prices.

Increase in demand of Chinese bikes clearly shows that the local market, which was previously dominated by Japanese bike makers for decades, still has room to lure more investments in low priced bike segment from China.

People, perturbed by high prices being charged by Japanese bike makers for the last many years, have shifted to low cost bikes ranging between Rs35,000-40,000 as compared to Rs60,000-62,000 of Japanese bikes.

“I think the demand of bikes for both Chinese and Japanese will reach to 500,000 units next year if positive economic indicators continue to dominate,” Anwar Iqbal Patron-in-Chief of Sindh Motorcycle Assemblers Association (SMAA), told Dawn.

He was of the view that the production of Chinese bikes is expected to touch 150,000 units by the end of current fiscal from 70,000 in 2002-2003 if the buying euphoria persists.

Chinese bike makers have individually invested around $40-50 million each by giving direct job opportunities to at least 100 persons in each units besides creating jobs for vendors.

Currently seven units (two in Hyderabad, two in Lahore and one each in Karachi and Gujrat) are busy in rolling out cheaper bikes.

An SMAA delegation also met Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Liaquat Ali Jatoi on August 4 and discussed their problem and future planning.

The delegation members pointed referred to the non-cooperative attitude of Engineering Development Board (EDB) as it did not approve the deletion programme of four units, sources in the meeting said. The minister assured the delegation of resolving the issue.

The entry of Chinese bikes have definitely caused a stir in the market. As a result, Japanese bike makers had to cut the price by Rs7,000-10,000 two months back. Soon after that, Chinese bike makers had further slashed the prices by Rs3,000- 3,500 to provide further competition to the dominant players.

However, figures of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) revealed that Japanese bike makers (Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki) did not feel much pinch of the intense market and price competition. They had a good booming sales in the last fiscal year. Honda production and sales stood at 115,924 and 117,201 units in 2002-2003 as compared to 90,111 and 89,997 units in 2001-2002. Dawood Yamaha production and sales recorded at 27,427 and 27,886 units as compared to 22,444 and 22,024 units. Production and sales of Suzuki stood at 13,610 and 13,788 units as compared to 8,072 and 8,062 units respectively.