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规则变化带来禧玛诺的春天?

对于热衷骑行的人,禧玛诺(Shimano)的名号绝不陌生。在全世界的高档运动自行车上,禧马诺的零部件以绝对优势保持着全球第一的占有率,而近日UCI对于碟刹禁令的改变是否会帮助禧玛诺迎来更美好的春天?

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识:

fret 烦恼

stubbornly 顽固地

amateur 业余爱好者

roaring 轰鸣

capitalization 市值

pundit 专家

straightforward 简单的

capex 资本支出

阅读马上开始,建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间,对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

Pro cycling rule change to propel Japan's Shimano(508words)

By Leo Lewis in Tokyo

Shimano,the Japanese company whose gears and brakes propel and stop more than 30m new bicycles around the world every year,is poised to race ahead thanks to a rule change by professional cycling's governing body.

After years of controversy and lobbying,a ban on disc brakes once stubbornly upheld by the Union Cycliste Internationale has been lifted.

Should various trials of disc brakes succeed,competitors in the Tour de France and other great road races will be free to hurl themselves into downhill corners with even greater abandon,even in wet conditions. The technology,say analysts,is then likely to eventually become standard in the amateur racing bike market — a boon for the handful of high-end disc brake suppliers,Shimano dominant amongst them.

For some analysts,the promise of disc brakes is a roaring “buy” signal for Shimano,even after three years of stellar stock price performance. Shares in the Y1.7tn($14bn)market capitalisation company,whose sales have historically been swayed by chilly April weather and emerging market currency ructions,are hovering close to all-time highs above Y19,000 first touched in March.

Since early 2012,when global sales of racing bikes began to surge and lifestyle pundits in the US,Europe and Japan decreed cycling the “new golf”,Shimano stock has risen by nearly 500 per cent. Picking a bicycle maker from dozens around the world was difficult,say fund managers,but the broad bet on cycling was made straightforward by Shimano's 70 per cent global market share in brakes and gears.

Bicycle sales in developed countries,says CLSA's Morten Paulsen,are driven by the desire for exercise and are only modestly affected by economic cycles. “Demand is,to a large extent,desynchronised from the capex cycle and general consumption trends,” he says,“Shimano is a defensive investment in a market environment dominated by uncertainty.”

For now,at least,that theory is holding. Japanese exports of bicycle parts surged to record levels over the summer: the Y10.6bn exports logged in July were 33 per cent higher than the same period in 2014.

Sales,especially to the developed markets of the US and Europe,should receive a further boost from the 2016 Rio Olympics,say analysts. As far back as the Atlanta games in 1996,Olympics years have handed Shimano average year-on-year revenue growth rates of 10 per cent,versus just 4 per cent growth in non-Olympics years.

But others fret over whether the impending disc brake windfall — along with the growth of electric gear changers and e-bikes — can offset a more alarming collapse of growth in China,where the economy has been rocked by a slowdown,counterfeiting and,say analysts at Nomura,fallout from President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign.

Growth rates for Shimano's sales in China averaged more than 50 per cent in the years between 2012 and 2014; by the end of the current calendar year,sales growth rates are forecast to have fallen to just 9 per cent.

The focus for investors,say analysts at Goldman Sachs,will be on when double-digit growth can resume.

请根据你所读到的文章内容,完成以下自测题目:

1.Who stubbornly upheld a ban on disc brakes in past years?

A.Shimano

B.Tour de France

C.the Union Cycliste Internationale

D.CLSA

[1] 答案

2.When the shares are hovering close to all-time highs above Y19,000 firstly?

A.April

B.March

C.May

D.July

[2] 答案

3.Which country is not in the case of CLSA's Paulsen Morten' theory?

A.US

B.UK

C.Japan

D.China

[3] 答案

4.What is the attitude for Shimano's sales in 2016 by the analysts?

A.optimistic

B.pessimistic

C.unclear

D.angry

[4] 答案


[1] 答案:C.the Union Cycliste Internationale解释:文章第二段,国际自行车联盟一度是这项禁令的支持者。

[2] 答案:B.March解释:公司市值在3月首次接近历史高点。

[3] 答案:D.China解释:Paulsen Morten的观点是针对发达国家的。

[4] 答案:A.optimistic解释:政府将于明年春季发布关于BBC未来的提议。 KLXdjWuvDZPzn79mSa7bgHGqId/5twbvgytqk+vRJRGuJyVRxmSm04gUA+B6Bkkp

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