Helmet prices soaring in China

Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security's Traffic Management Bureau launched the campaign "one helmet, one belt." This measure will take effect on June 1, aiming to protect people on the roads by mandating scooter riders to wear helmets and car drivers to fasten their seatbelt.

As soon as the news came out, helmets became a hit. Bike helmets which were sold for 30 yuan before April, were sold at prices above 80 yuan a week ago, and on Saturday, the price for a helmet increased to 188 yuan. Now helmets are being sold for 298 yuan.

The price of helmets is increasing every day, often doubling or tripling overnight. The cost of ABS materials, which is needed to make helmets, has also quadrupled.

This is the first time that Chinese authorities have forced electric scooter riders to follow suit. There used to be a policy requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. However, since this is not compulsory, only 30% of electric scooter riders wear helmets.

According to official data, China has nearly 250 million electric scooters. If unregistered motorcycles are included, the number may reach 300 million, which means that China may lack 200 million helmets, and the market size may exceed 10 billion yuan.

As the price of helmets has been rising in the past month, China has established more than 3,500 new helmet-related enterprises, mainly distributed in the eastern coastal provinces. The shortage of helmets led to a sharp increase in manufacturers' orders. However, many businesses claim that the product are not qualified for the national 3C certification. Consumers should pay attention to the quality of helmets before purchasing them.

It is reported that the price of helmets in some places has tripled in three days, and some profiteers have taken advantage of the opportunity to raise prices. Therefore, some people suggested that since the government had limited the price of masks during the epidemic, it should intervene in the helmet market this time.

In fact, mask economics does not apply to the current helmet market. When the "invisible hand" of the market cannot function normally, it needs the "visible hand" of the government to regulate. By contrast, the helmet problem still belongs to the market category and does not need to be solved by mask economics.