Following nine consecutive years of annual decline in the number of Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) exported to Europe by the ‘big-four’ Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, data for the first two months of this year suggests that their dealers may finally be about to see a turn in their fortunes.
Whilst two months of data aren’t enough to establish robust trend conclusions, and while the extent of decline will under any circumstances require many years of growth in order for sales to approach historic levels, when taken in conjunction with the national sales data that has been emerging so far this year, industry analysts are pointing to these latest figures as suggesting that the bottom of the European motorcycle industry’s very broad ‘U-curve’ may finally have been transitioned.
Total PTW exports to Europe from Japan stood at 17,261 units (+27.21 percent) in January and 18,468 (+12.3) in February, or a year to date total of 35,729 units, which is 19.04 percent up on the first two months of 2013.
This follows a month on month reduction in the rate of decline since February 2013 and the return to export growth in the final quarter of 2013 – total Japanese manufacturer PTW exports to Europe were down by -9.52 percent (147,965 units) for last year.
To put these figures into context, Japanese exports to Europe had declined by -6.1 percent in 2012 and -23.58 percent in 2011, having peaked in recent-cycle terms at 481,427 units in 2004. Prior to that, the market has seen several spikes in cycles over the years – reaching 690,629 in 1998 with an all-time high of 921,593 in 1981.
In 250cc+ motorcycle terms, the picture is similar (the huge majority of Japanese unit exports to Europe are motorcycles), with the January and February year-to-date data closing out at 17,751 units for those two months, which is up +14.05 percent over the first two months of 2013.
Total Japanese manufacturer 250cc+ motorcycle exports to Europe were 130,455 for 2013 (-11.48 percent) and 147,377 (-5.63 percent) in 2012, following a -22.66 decline in 2011 (156,166 units).
