China's hardware industry has undergone over 30 years of rapid development and has gradually emerged in international trade as a significant producer and exporter of hardware products, playing an important role in promoting economic growth and stimulating consumption.
 

With the advancement in technology and production techniques, China's hardware foreign trade landscape has gradually transitioned from low-end to high-end products. According to China Customs statistics, as of December 2022, the total import and export volume of China's hardware products industry reached $195.45 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%. Exports amounted to $169.76 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 3.49%.

 

 

Hardware can be categorized into building hardware, tool hardware, daily use hardware, lock and grinding tools, kitchen and bathroom hardware, home hardware, etc. China's hardware industry clusters are characterized by complete industrial chains, distinctive industrial features, and high brand concentration.
 

Geographically, the industry is primarily distributed in provinces and municipalities such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Fujian, Hunan, Henan, Shanghai, and Chongqing, radiating to key markets across South, East, North, and Central China through industrial clusters.
 

Zhejiang—The Leading Province for Value-for-Money Hardware Exports
In the first three quarters of 2023, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Jiangsu ranked in the top three for total export volume. These provinces are the main production areas for hardware in China, showing a clear trend of industrial clustering and are also the top three exporting provinces, with Zhejiang accounting for 31%, Guangdong 15%, and Jiangsu 16%. As the leading exporting province for hardware, Zhejiang has hardware tool industry clusters in various parts of the province, establishing a solid foundation for the hardware industry.
 

Yiqiao Town in Hangzhou produces over a thousand varieties in more than fifty categories such as socket tools, power tools, combination tools, woodworking tools, and measuring tools, exporting to more than 80 countries and regions including Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Jiande City in Hangzhou is the largest screwdriver production base in Asia, with its screwdrivers holding a 20% share of the global market.

Jinhua's hardware (power tools) industry is a traditional characteristic industry and a pillar industry, with a total output value exceeding 50 billion yuan. Yongkang in Jinhua, known as "China's Hardware Capital" and "World's Hardware Capital," has the hardware industry as its pillar industry, accounting for 90% of the industrial output value. Yongkang is home to China's largest and the world's third-largest hardware market—China Technology Hardware City, which achieved a market transaction volume of 45.532 billion yuan in 2022.

 

Ningbo, which holds the second place in Zhejiang's GDP, is popular in China for its bearings, drills, saws, screws, and other hardware tools. Bearings, home appliances, and auto parts are the main pillars of the industrial economy in Cixi, Ningbo, with a total of 683 bearing enterprises, and the industry's total output value accounting for 40% of the town's industrial output value.

Yinzhou District in Ningbo has more than 1,000 various hardware tool trade enterprises, with over 90% being export enterprises, and the export volume exceeded 2 billion USD in 2020; Yuyao in Ningbo is known as "China's Base for Hardware Power Tool Manufacturing."
 

Wenzhou, besides being famous for leather products, is also renowned for its hardware locks, faucets, bathroom accessories, and other products, known as "China's Lock Capital," with more than 600 lock enterprises, and its lock products accounting for more than 65% of the national market share; it also has more than 2,500 hardware enterprises with an annual sales volume exceeding 30 billion yuan.
 

Guangdong—The Leading Province for Home Hardware

The furniture hardware industry is also a typical traditional industry in Guangdong, forming a complete industrial chain centered on metal products and home hardware, with Jiangmen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Chaozhou, Guangzhou, and Foshan as centers, driving the rapid development of Guangdong's economy.

 

Jiangmen's Xinhui Siqian, Heshan Zhishan, and Kaiping Shuikou are mature metal product industry belts. Shuikou, with faucets as its traditional industrial products, has more than 700 sanitary ware enterprises, including 16 with an output value of over 100 million yuan. Categories such as tableware, household utensils, and stainless steel plates are exported to more than 100 countries and regions around the world, including Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and Latin America.
 

Metal products are the industry with the highest industrial output value and the highest proportion of the city's industry in Jiangmen. In 2022, Jiangmen's metal product industry achieved an industrial output value of 69.069 billion yuan, with an added value of 14.282 billion yuan. Jiangmen is also one of China's sanitary hardware industry bases and one of the three major stainless steel production bases in Guangdong Province.
 

Zhongshan is known as "China's Lock Capital," with an industrial cluster of more than 800 lock enterprises, accounting for 70% of the national industry's total output value, with 85% of exports. Not long ago, Xiaolan Town in Zhongshan was listed as a smart lock industry cluster in Guangdong Province. Xiaolan has more than 180 smart lock production enterprises and more than 5,300 supporting enterprises, with a lock industry output value scale of over 10 billion yuan, producing 2 million smart locks annually.

 

Guangzhou and Foshan, as the birthplaces and centers of China's home industry cluster, have emerged as a group of excellent home hardware enterprises. "China's Home Hardware Capital"
 

Shunde, Foshan, currently has about 1,300 home hardware-related enterprises, with a production value of 14.2 billion yuan for scale above enterprises in 2022. The Leliu and Longjiang areas in Shunde are the birthplaces of Chinese furniture, where furniture hardware factories produce furniture hardware accessories such as sofa legs, sofa frames, bed frames, mattress springs, hinges, door handles, sliders, etc., with furniture hardware products exported to Australia, America, Southeast Asia, and other regions every year.

Danzhao in Shunde, Foshan, is an industrial cluster for small hardware categories, known as "China's Daily Use Hardware Capital," with the hardware industry accounting for 70% of the town's industrial output value, with more than 1,000 types of lighting fixtures, nail clippers, clothing/baggage accessories, etc., with products exported to Europe, America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other countries.
 

"China's Leather Capital" - Huadu in Guangzhou, mainly composed of hardware accessory enterprises, mainly for the leather bag industry to do supporting. Currently, it has gathered more than 8,800 leather bag manufacturers and more than 16,800 supporting service merchants, providing more than 700 million bags to global customers every year.
 

Jiangsu—Danyang Hardware Tools Account for 60% of the World's Capacity

Jiangsu is an important large-scale hardware production province in the country. According to incomplete statistics, there are thousands of scale hardware production and sales enterprises in Jiangsu, with an annual total output value of tens of billions of yuan. "China's Hardware Tool Township" Zhenjiang Danyang has more than 500 enterprises producing hardware tools.

In addition, Xuzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, and other places in Jiangsu all have strong pillar industries: Pizhou in Xuzhou has the highest production of wire cutters in the same industry in the country, accounting for 55% of the national sales market; Wuxi has more than 10,000 mechanical and electrical hardware enterprises, and mechanical and electrical hardware has become one of the pillar industries of Wuxi.
 

Suzhou's hardware tools, medical devices, light industry scissors, garden tools, kitchen utensils, and other products are exported to more than 70 countries and regions such as Europe, America, the Middle East, South Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Hardware tools have more than 130 product series and more than 3,000 varieties, with an annual sales volume of more than 180 million pieces.