Haiyan's Fastener Output Value Exceeds ¥12 Billion

In the first three quarters of this year, 171 fastener manufacturing enterprises above a designated scale in Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province, completed a total industrial output value exceeding 12 billion yuan. As one of the three major fastener production areas in China, Haiyan has built a significant regional economic pillar based on this traditional industry. However, faced with a series of practical problems — including an increasingly complex global trade environment, the coexistence of excess low-end manufacturing capacity and insufficient supply of high-tech content products, and the need to improve overall industry profitability — how Haiyan's fastener industry can break through its current difficulties and continue to promote high-quality development has become an important topic for the local economy.

Haiyan County Media Center recently planned and launched a series of special reports titled "Annual Economic Observation," systematically reviewing the practices and stories of industries and enterprises facing challenges and seeking breakthroughs in the process of advancing the "Industrial Powerhouse County" strategy.

Haiyan's fastener industry began in the early 1970s, initially producing wood screws. After decades of development, the county currently has more than 400 related enterprises, with self-operated exports accounting for more than 9% of the national total for similar products. Despite obvious industrial scale and export advantages, in recent years, as external environmental changes and internal structural problems have gradually emerged, how to respond to export market fluctuations and enhance industrial competitiveness has become an issue that Haiyan fastener enterprises must directly address. To this end, local enterprises are actively promoting industrial transformation and upgrading by deepening their presence in the domestic market, accelerating smart manufacturing upgrades, and strengthening industrial chain collaboration.

Dual-Driven by Smart Manufacturing and Market Expansion

At Yuxing Fastener (Jiaxing) Co., Ltd., located in the Haiyan Economic Development Zone (Xitangqiao Subdistrict), the production workshop is usually busy by 7:30 a.m. Company Chairman Shen Jiahua personally inspects the production line every day to ensure that production problems are resolved promptly. Holding a welding nut customized for BYD Auto, he said: "This product looks ordinary, but it requires very high stability and precision. Current monthly shipments exceed 200 tons."

Fasteners are often called the "rice of industry" and are indispensable basic components for all types of manufacturing. However, after years of development, the production technology for ordinary screws and nuts has become very common. A joke even circulates in Haiyan: "If you have no money, go screw-making," which reflects the industry's long-standing awkward position in low-value-added links.

For enterprises that have been deeply involved in the fastener industry for decades, being content with ordinary fastener production will eventually lead to the risk of being eliminated from the market. Yuxing Fastener recognized this early and made increasing the technological content of its products and pursuing simultaneous development of domestic and international markets its direction for breaking through.

Currently, Yuxing has entered the high-end fastener market in fields such as wind power, automobiles, and engineering machinery, and continues to strengthen its independent R&D capabilities. It is understood that the company's new factory building is expected to receive its first batch of intelligent production equipment next April, focusing on mid-to-high-end product lines. After the project reaches full capacity, the company's annual output value target is 1 billion yuan.

Shen Jiahua admitted: "When we were the only ones producing nylon lock nuts, the profits were considerable. After peers master the relevant technology, we must continuously launch new products." He emphasized that the industries fasteners serve are iterating rapidly, and enterprises must stay ahead of the market, with technological content being the key to product vitality.

In terms of market layout, Yuxing proactively adjusted its sales structure, gradually shifting its development focus from the original "half domestic, half export" to primarily domestic demand supplemented by exports. From January to October this year, the proportion of domestic sales increased to about 55%.

"Since the second half of the year, domestic orders have grown significantly, especially in the new energy vehicle sector. We have shortened the delivery cycle for domestic orders to 15 days, and some customers even station personnel at our factory to follow production," Shen Jiahua said.

In 2024, Yuxing achieved an annual output value of 448 million yuan. This year it is expected to reach 500 million yuan, with a year-on-year profit increase of about 15% to 20%. Shen Jiahua pointed out that the company's growth does not rely on price competition but on the continuous upgrading of mid-to-high-end products. Currently, Yuxing has 36 quality inspection personnel, strictly follows the European quality system standard for full-process control, and has achieved "zero-error" high-standard delivery for new energy vehicle customers.

"We always stick to a two-pronged approach of foreign trade and domestic sales, enhancing product competitiveness through strict standards to gain a foothold in the domestic market. At the same time, we leverage the rapid feedback from the domestic market to promote product iteration, and then push mature products verified in the domestic market to the international market, achieving synchronized growth and mutual improvement in both domestic and international markets," Shen Jiahua concluded.

"Second Transformation" Becomes a Necessary Question for Industrial Development

In recent years, places like Hebei Yongnian, leveraging advantages in labor and raw material costs, have rapidly expanded in the low-to-mid-end fastener market and gradually transformed into sales and distribution centers, exerting some pressure on Haiyan's traditional competitive advantages. Earlier, Haiyan had already promoted a "first transformation" of its fastener industry centered on eliminating outdated capacity and promoting enterprise agglomeration.

However, with the rapid development of emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, wind power, and high-end equipment manufacturing, the market has put forward higher requirements for the strength, stability, corrosion resistance, and manufacturing precision of fastener products, with some products needing to be controlled within millimeter or even micron tolerances.

Facing new market requirements, Haiyan's fastener enterprises must transform toward the "high-end, precision, and advanced" direction to remain competitive in key supply chains. The transformation currently underway in Haiyan's fastener industry is no longer a localized adjustment of cost and capacity but a systemic restructuring covering product structure, customer base, and production methods.

Enterprises such as Qifeng Precision and Haixun Precision are accelerating their layout around mid-to-high-end fastener market segments. Currently, Qifeng Precision's "annual output of 15.88 million high-end precision parts technology transformation project" is progressing steadily, with new equipment expected to be installed starting in December this year.

Zhejiang Haixun Precision Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Changqiangshan Industrial Park of Ganyan Town (South-North Lake Scenic Area), has a production environment that complements the natural landscape, while the workshop interior presents a highly intelligent production scene.

One of the company's core facilities is an intelligent three-dimensional warehouse covering an area of 2,000 square meters, with a total of 13,000 storage locations. "From raw materials to finished products, we have achieved automated management of the entire process, which is a first in the domestic fastener industry," said Deng Jin, the company's general manager. On just 20 mu of land, Haixun, through the combination of "machinery moving upstairs" and an intelligent logistics system, increased its floor area ratio to about 2.8, higher than the industry average of about 2.0.

In June 2025, Haixun launched a dedicated stainless steel screw production workshop. Since starting production, it has remained at full capacity, with an operating rate stable at over 90%. "The selling price of stainless steel screws is about 30,000 yuan per ton, far higher than the level of over 10,000 yuan for carbon steel products," Deng Jin said.

Uniform electroplating of long screws has always been a technical difficulty in the industry. To this end, Haixun invested nearly 2 million yuan this year to upgrade its electroplating production line, adopting a dedicated "sub-drum" technology. "We separate the screws into multiple small drums inside a large drum, with a dozen or so screws per small drum, avoiding collision and cross-contact during electroplating, effectively solving the problems of uneven conductivity and surface damage. This process is currently at a leading level in the Jiaxing region," Deng Jin said. Currently, the monthly output of such high-end long screws is stable at 200 to 300 tons.

As of October this year, Haixun's output value had exceeded 200 million yuan, and it is expected to reach 240 million yuan for the full year, a year-on-year increase of about 30%.

Industrial Chain Collaboration Opens New Upgrade Paths

The upgrade of Haiyan's fastener industry is gradually extending from internal enterprise technology and management improvements to collaboration and integration along the industrial chain. If Yuxing and Haixun represent the enhancement of enterprise internal momentum, then Zheshang Zhongtuo Group New Material Technology Co., Ltd. is changing the "external logic" of the industrial chain.

In 2017, Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials settled in Haiyan, with cold heading wire as its main product, filling the gap in high-end materials in Haiyan's fastener industry chain. Cold heading wire is the starting point for the production of high-end screws, nuts, and other fasteners. Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials has an annual production capacity of 360,000 tons, the largest in China, mainly serving mid-to-high-end fastener manufacturing enterprises.

Every day at 2 p.m. is the peak logistics time for Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials. Multiple trucks gather at the factory site, transporting wire to more than 3,000 fastener enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region, including more than 240 local customers in Haiyan. "In the first 11 months of this year, purchases by Haiyan customers have already exceeded last year's full-year total of 125,000 tons," said Yan Fengyang, assistant general manager of the company. This data reflects the trend of Haiyan fastener enterprises transforming toward the high-end in terms of raw materials.

In May this year, Changshan Wharf at the Jiashan Port Ganyan Operation Area, located only 1 kilometer from Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials, officially opened for operation, reducing the company's transportation cost per ton of raw materials by about 10 yuan. In the future, warehousing facilities will also be built around the wharf to further reduce transfer costs. According to a relevant staff member of the county transportation investment group, all cargo at the wharf is currently carried by Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials, efficiently matching the pace of industrial chain upgrading.

Based on confidence in the development prospects of Haiyan's fastener industry, Phase II of the Zheshang Zhongtuo New Materials project was again located in Ganyan and entered the trial production stage in mid-October this year. For the spheroidizing treatment process, the new factory uses internationally advanced STC furnaces to replace traditional well-type furnaces, reducing processing time per ton of product from 2 hours to 0.7 hours, and increasing daily output to nearly three times that of the traditional model. "STC furnaces can produce higher-end products, with single-ton profit 1.5 to 2 times that of the past," Yan Fengyang pointed out.

"Although affected by the downward trend in steel prices, the company's revenue is expected to be 1.6 billion yuan this year, slightly lower than last year's 1.725 billion yuan, but physical throughput will exceed 470,000 tons, and profit levels have not declined," Yan Fengyang said.

Currently, the company is exploring a "virtual factory" model, continuously extending toward the service end: using its own brand and channels to undertake high-value-added international orders and distributing them to certified local processing enterprises. "We provide standards, wire, and orders; partner enterprises focus on manufacturing," Yan Fengyang said. This model is expected to drive the overall upgrade of regional small and medium-sized enterprises.

Challenges and Policy Support in the Transformation Process

In 2025, the "Haiyan County Implementation Opinions on Supporting the Transformation and Upgrading of the Fastener Industry (2025-2027)" was officially released, setting a development goal of achieving a total output value of enterprises above a designated scale in the industrial chain exceeding 20 billion yuan by 2027, with an average annual growth rate exceeding 8%.

Jiaxing Jiansheng Hardware Technology Co., Ltd., located in Qinshan Subdistrict, has focused on fastener production for thirty years and is currently advancing a "technology transformation project for 10,000 tons of stainless steel hardware products per year." "The project requires large investment and has high technical barriers. Initially, we had concerns and lacked in-depth understanding of relevant policies," said Zhang Hao, the company's general manager. The County Economic and Information Technology Bureau proactively provided guidance and systematically explained the technology transformation support policies. With their help, Jiansheng Hardware was successfully selected for the 2025 proposed list of Jiaxing Municipal Enterprise Technology Centers, providing strong support for the company's transformation.

Of course, for many Haiyan fastener enterprises, the "second transformation" is both an opportunity and a challenge, with talent and capital pressures still existing.

According to an analysis by a relevant official of the County Fastener Industry Association, on one hand, vocational school graduates are more inclined to continue their studies or enter the service industry, with fewer and fewer young people willing to apply for frontline technical positions. Skilled workers who can read drawings and skillfully operate automated equipment are particularly scarce. On the other hand, the investment in high-end equipment and intelligent production lines often requires tens of millions of yuan, with a long payback period. Small and medium-sized enterprises still have doubts about whether "technological upgrades will bring stable orders."

"Small screws, big world." This sentence both summarizes the characteristics of the fastener industry and foretells the future of Haiyan's traditional industrial chain. The success or failure of this transformation concerns not only the survival and development of individual enterprises but also tests a county's comprehensive ability to optimize and restructure its industrial structure in the context of industrial upgrading.