During the pandemic, people worldwide rediscovered biking, relishing any chance to get out of the house during lockdowns while avoiding sniffles and sneezes on subways and buses. As bicycle sales in Europe jumped more than 10% in 2020, retailers that had grown dependent on Asian suppliers struggled to meet demand. For Emre Ozgunes, that presented an opportunity.

Ozgunes, general manager of Carbon Team Lda., a manufacturer of high-end bicycle frames in Portugal, is betting he can gain an edge over producers in Asia whose transport costs have been rising, with delivery times sometimes stretching to more than a year. In his niche market of carbon-fiber frames for bikes that cost €5,000 ($5,400) and up, he figured he could appeal to riders seeking homegrown cachet. “Until now, they didn’t have another option,” Ozgunes says. “With Carbon Team, they do.”

Supply bottlenecks and delivery delays during the pandemic raised awareness of Europe’s dependence on Asia for goods ranging from face masks to pharmaceuticals. That’s spurred manufacturers such as Carbon Team to expand in hopes that faster delivery times can offset the prices they must charge given Europe’s higher wages—even in a relatively inexpensive country such as Portugal. “Growing production of some goods like motorcycles, bicycles or jewelry—which had been falling substantially through the 2000s—points to some small pockets” of manufacturing returning to Europe, says Maeva Cousin, a senior economist at Bloomberg Economics.

The greatest advantage for European companies will be in pricier products such as Ozgunes’s frames, where buyers tend to care about provenance and are willing to pay extra for goods produced in the region. “Europeans increasingly want ‘Made in Europe,’  ” says Gil Nadais, secretary-general of Abimota, a trade group for bicycle and motorcycle makers. “The competition isn’t about price.”

Portugal in 2019 unseated Italy to become Europe’s biggest bicycle manufacturer, though its 2021 production of 2.9 million bikes remains behind what producers in Asia exported to Europe. The industry employs about 10,000 people in Portugal, and exports have grown more than 30% in each of the past two years, according to Abimota. Europeans bought as many as 1 million carbon frames last year, but fewer than 30,000 were manufactured in the region, according to Conebi, a trade group for European bike producers. By 2030, Conebi predicts, up to 20% of carbon frames sold in the region could be manufactured there—and Ozgunes aims to be a big part of that. He says he can deliver frames within six months of receiving a client’s design, while for an Asian competitor it would take three times as long.

Ozgunes in 2019 started building an €8 million factory in Campia, a three-hour drive (or a very long day’s bike ride) north of Lisbon, and he’s now laying plans for a €5 million expansion. Aiming to become Europe’s biggest maker of carbon frames, he expects to almost triple staff this year, to 120. He says production will jump to 18,000 frames in 2024, from 3,500 last year, and sales will more than double next year, to €10 million.

At his factory, workers shape the frames by pressing carbon into metal molds, then they place them in ovens where the fiber is baked to give it strength. When completed, the frames are tested on machines that simulate the jolting, jiggling, and jostling of a ride. Ozgunes says his frames are made as a single piece of carbon fiber rather than multiple elements glued together, making them sturdier and as much as 20% lighter than those made by some rivals—some weigh less than 800 grams. “It’s still a very manual process,” he says. “That’s why a carbon-fiber bicycle is much more expensive than an aluminum bike.”

He faces increasing competition. Italy’s Bianchi SpA says it will start production of carbon frames at a new plant near Milan this year. Ernesto Colnago aims to boost 2023 output almost 20% at its Italian factory, to more than 7,000. And Europe is home to many smaller manufacturers such as Hope Technology Ltd., which produces about 500 carbon frames a year in the UK, France’s Look Cycle (a maker of frames for the French and US Olympic cycling teams) and mountain bike specialist Last GmbH in Germany.

In some respects, Ozgunes remains dependent on lengthy supply chains. The carbon fiber he uses is produced in Japan and then shipped to Italy for processing before arriving in Portugal. He says that while he’s seen some hiccups in obtaining a few specialized types of carbon fiber, the arrangement hasn’t created any insurmountable obstacles. For his bike-maker customers, things are more complicated. Even if the frame is made in Europe, components such as brakes and derailleurs typically come from Asia, and it can take as long as two years to get many of those. Ozgunes says some clients are looking for producers closer to home, and one European bike maker had to cancel an order of 300 frames for delivery in January because it couldn’t get parts. “Clients aren’t only thinking about frames,” Ozgunes says. “Even if Carbon Team is the fastest supplier in the world, that’s no use if they don’t have components.”