Plans by companies to move bike parts manufacturing from Asia and China to Europe have largely been put on hold as soaring energy costs hit the region.

Industry executives say companies have backed away from shifting orders to longer delivery times as energy prices on the continent have risen much faster than elsewhere.

While the war in Ukraine has further disrupted deliveries, the European group said it was no longer realistic to source materials and components closer to factories and consumers to avoid supply chain bottlenecks.

“It would be a dream to buy most of the parts in Europe, but it’s a huge challenge,” said Bastian Roessler, chief executive of Cube Bikes, which produced more than 1 million bikes last year.

“Given the challenges of the current war and higher energy costs, it will be more difficult to make more purchases in Europe,” added the German manufacturer’s boss.

His comments come as the bicycle industry is struggling with lead times from ordering components to delivery, with lead times for some parts increasing from a few months before the pandemic to nearly two years.

The Ukrainian war created further complications, with shipping groups forced to avoid Russian airspace and other routes from Asia to Europe that traverse the vast country, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Manufacturers were only required to wait three months for fork components before the pandemic, but are now averaging up to 18 months, according to figures provided to the Financial Times by the World Bicycle Industry Association.

Delivery times for other parts are just as long. Before the pandemic, bike frames used to take three months, but today it takes 15 months, while tire lead times have stretched from three to 12 months.

But as of Friday, gas prices in Europe had risen sevenfold from a year earlier to 111 euros per megawatt hour, thus largely abandoning the decision to relocate.

High energy costs are holding back investment in Europe, said Manuel Marsilio, general manager of the European Bicycle Industry Federation.

“It’s hard to do [invest] With such high energy prices. “

However, he believes that the long wait for parts from China means that producers remain committed to shortening supply chains in the long term.

He sticks to his prediction that the value of local parts manufacturing in Europe will double to 6 billion euros by 2025, thanks to the presence of Germany’s Bosch, a key supplier of electric bikes.

To make matters worse, the bicycle industry also faces new supply chain threats from factory closures as Shenzhen’s coronavirus lockdown and Shanghai.

As of Friday, more than 140 ships were waiting outside ports near Hong Kong and Shanghai, up by half from the beginning of the year, according to Kuehne+Nagel.

The bicycle industry is particularly vulnerable because it relies on a handful of big component makers—Shimano in Japan, SRAM in the U.S. and Campagnolo in Italy—who are generally wary of overinvesting to create new capacity.

“The biggest challenge is that we rely a lot on Shimano or SRAM,” said Rob Gitelis, CEO of Factor Bikes, a Taiwanese bike manufacturer backed by Tour de France winner Chris Froome.

“I’ve talked to friends at Apple and they have contingency plans in place. We don’t have anything like that in the bike industry.”

In addition, the conflict in Ukraine has raised broader concerns about inflation, which could disrupt business and further hit consumer demand.

However, Rosler and others believe the high-end industry, which makes high-performance bikes and electric machines, can weather the storm, especially if soaring fuel prices could prompt people to abandon their cars.

“The second car is turning into an electric bike,” Marsilio said.