The opening ceremony of the 7th Shaodong Hardware and Mechanical Expo. (Photo/Zhao Yufeng)

The 7th Shaodong Hardware and Mechanical Expo opened in Shaodong City, Shaoyang, on April 6. More than 1,000 enterprises from 18 countries and regions such as Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Hungary attended. Over 3,500 varieties of exhibits are on display, including hardwares, welding and cutting equipment, machine tools and accessories, mechanical and electrical products, and locksets.

Shaodong, a county-level city, is famous for its hardware production around China, and is a provincial key county with its featured county economy of metal tools manufacturing. It has the largest hardware and mechanical market in the central and southern regions of China, with over 3,500 hardware producers and businesses employing more than 50,000 people. It boasts a complete industrial chain with an annual production capacity of more than 300 million wrench, plier, and hammer kits. Among them, the output of wrenches accounts for more than 75% of the country's share.

More than 300 million wrench, plier, and hammer kits are produced in Shaodong annually. (Photo/Fu Jingyi)

Moreover, Shaodong possesses the largest logistics and distribution hub in the central and southern regions of China. There are nearly 300 logistics routes linking to more than 80% of the counties and county-level regions nationwide, and 300 proprietary trading import and export companies and over 2,000 overseas marketing platforms. More than half of Shaodong-made hardware products are sold to Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, as well as the Middle East, Southeast Asian, European, and American countries.

The expo covers an exhibition area of 52,600 square meters, composed of seven pavilions and 1,336 booths. On the first day of the expo, the on-site turnover amounted to 8.6 billion CNY, and orders worth 20.3 billion CNY were signed. Besides, 70% of the booths for the next session in 2024 have been booked.

A "Return of Hunan-born Entrepreneurs" investment attraction event and a project signing ceremony were held at the same time. Eighteen projects were signed with a total value of 10.76 billion CNY, involving such areas as new energy, manufacturing, and headquarter economy.

Shaodong-made hardware products are sold to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Middle East, Southeast Asian, European, and American countries. (Photo/Fu Jingyi)

Since 2017, Shaodong government has leveraged the advantages of hardware and mechanical industry to organize the hardware and mechanical expo as an important regional, national, and international platform for displaying hardware and mechanical products, facilitating commercial communication, promoting technical cooperation, and advancing project investment. The number of exhibitors in the previous sessions amounted to 4,000 and the transaction volume reached 23.5 billion CNY. These have strongly driven the development of hardware industry.

More than 1,000 exhibitors from over 20 countries and regions participate in the expo. (Photo/Zhao Yufeng)

"Shaodong has become one of the globally renowned hardware producers and exporters, together with Yongkang City in Zhejiang, Daxin Town in Jiangsu's Zhangjiagang, and Xiaolan in Guangdong's Zhongshan", said Zhou Yufan, secretary of the CPC Shaodong City Committee. As a result of the transformation and upgrading of the hardware industry, the product categories have been expanded and the quality has improved. The export value of Shaodong-made hardware products surged from five million USD to nearly 10 million USD. In 2022, the output value of Shaodong's hardware industry in both domestic and international markets increased by 8.27% year on year to 30.43 billion CNY.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: Chinanews