By Pedro.
Business reporter
Rodi's image source.
The image caption is.
Portugal's bike and bike parts manufacturers have seen a big increase in orders.
The business he helps to run had to slam on its brakes because of coronaviruses.
One of the largest manufacturers of bike wheels in Europe is a company called Rodi.
Bike firms started to delay orders at the beginning of the Pandemic. We stopped production.
300 employees agreed to take a three-week holiday to try to save their jobs. Millions of people across Europe took up cycling during the Pandemic, as things changed for the better a month later.
"From April things turned completely," says Mr. Mendes. The market exploded after orders doubled. The employees realized that the Pandemic wasn't going to threaten their jobs.
The image is from Rui Mendes.
The image caption is.
Within a month, he and his colleagues went from despair to relief.
Many people outside of Portugal might not know that Portugal is the largest manufacturer of bikes in the European Union. More than 2.6 million bikes were made in Portugal last year.
The total number of bicycles produced was more than 12 million. Germany was third with 1.3 million and Italy was second with 2.1 million.
Portugal doesn't have any big bike brand names, instead it does manufacturing for foreign companies. One of its largest producers is RTE, which makes bicycles for the French giant. Taiwan's Fritz Jou Manufacturing owns another bike.
The industry is centered around a small city called Agueda in central Portugal. Rodi is one of the firms that make bike parts or accessories.
Almost 8,000 people are employed in the sector in and around Agueda, and there are more than 60 factories.
Joo Filipe Miranda says that his business will post a revenue figure of 27m this year, its best since the company's foundation in 1940.
The image is from Joo Filipe Miranda.
The image caption is.
Miranda has had its best-ever year, according to Joo Filipe Miranda.
Miranda makes components for bicycle gears.
Portugal's bike industry is known for its quality, but it also benefits from offering its European customers shorter supply chains than its Asian competitors, according to Mr Miranda. The European Union imposes tariffs on Chinese bike imports.
There are extra fees or duties for both standard and electric bikes.
Gil Nadais, secretary general of the trade body for the Portuguese cycling sector - Portugal Bike Value - says the main driving force behind the industry's continuing boom was the swine flu.
Rodi's image source.
The image caption is.
Since the start of the Pandemic, the popularity of cycling has gone up across Europe.
Covid brought a new opportunity to the sector, since it encouraged healthier lifestyles across Europe.
The industry is expected to see a 20% to 30% increase in total exports this year.
Have Portuguese people become more interested in cycling since Covid? In the capital Lisbon and second city Porto, people were traditionally seen as adverse to cycling due to the steep and often cobbled roads.
New Economy explores how businesses, trade, economies and working life are changing fast.
According to one report, the use of bikes, including electric ones, to help get up all the hills in Lisbon has risen by 25% since the start of the Pandemic.
The owner of Lisbon's oldest bike shop, which was founded in 1951, says his sales have increased by 40% since the beginning of the Pandemic. The number of people wanting him to fix their bikes has gone up.
Miranda's image source.
The image caption is.
Miranda is a supplier of bike gear parts.
He says that people who already owned bicycles but didn't use them often showed up for repairs.
The Rodi parts factory sold half a million bike wheels and three million wheel rims in 2020, a 35% increase over 2019.
He says that the bicycle sector was lucky that it didn't suffer as much as other industries.
There are electric bikes and scooters.
Portugal.
Global trade.
A coronaviruses epidemic.
