China produced 76.06 million bicycles last year, a decline of 13.2 percent from the previous year, Ma Zhongchao, head of China bicycle industry association, said Tuesday.
The decline rate was the biggest for the industry since 1996.
Exports also went down 18.2 percent year-on-year to 46.12 million bicycles in 2009, but tended to recover since December. In January, foreign sales stood at 4.08 million bicycles, up 21.4 percent on the same month of last year.
Despite the production decline, major producers, each with an annual sales volume of at least 5 million yuan (732,064 U.S. dollars), garnered 1.99 billion yuan in profits last year, up 22.2 percent over 2008.
Ma attributed the profit growth to end of competition on low prices and exploration of markets for higher-end products.
Last year, China produced 23.69 million electric bicycles, up 8.2 percent year-on-year.
