China – Sram have decided to close its manufacturing plant in Kunshan, China and transfer production to its Taiwanese factory in Taichung.

Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Jeffrey Winterkorn told Sram employees that the decision was a difficult one, and explained the reasons behind the decision. “Unfortunately, changes in the China domestic market as well as the global bicycle markets have resulted in SRAM Kunshan capacity only being 20% utilized. Our sales for Kunshan produced products have continued to decrease while our costs are on the rise. At the same time there are numerous trade agreements that are impacting where our customers are assembling bicycles.”

“In order to adapt to these new changes and focus our manufacturing operations to better support our customers, SRAM has decided to close Kunshan manufacturing and will transfer production to our Taiwan factories by June 2017.”

Sram's Kunshan factory has been in operation for three years, and Mr. Winterkorn praised the Kunshan employees great teamwork and commitment to quality, while stressing that the decision was not an easy one to take.