Intelligent Manufacturing at Canton Fair 2022: Innovation Empowers Small Hardware and Tools to Become a Big Industry

GUANGZHOU, China, April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Guangzhou is expecting the 131st Canton Fair. At present, many hardware manufacturers are preparing for the world-renowned trade event.

Each session of Canton Fair welcomes many top hardware sellers including Tianjin Minmetals, Shanghai Minmetals, and Chaozhou Three-Circle , who, as regular exhibitors, went global quite early via the Fair. Their small items such as tools, locks, faucets, lighters, zippers, and razors are not eye-catching but essential for the international market. The ubiquitous locks sold around the world are as popular as the globe’s most well-known brands, reflecting the momentum of the ” Hardware & Tools ” category at the Canton Fair in accessing the massive international market.

Regular buyers still recall that there were only around 40 categories of Chinese hardware products at the beginning of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, far less than today’s 10,000 categories. China’s hardware and tools industry has experienced tough decades: starting from scratch, it has transformed production from underdeveloped manual workshops to intelligent ones, transitioning from isolated development to innovation and opening up.

Structural imbalance in production leads to an oversupply of cheap hardware accessories. Fierce competition and changes in consumer perceptions make the extensive production model unsustainable. As the market demands finer products, leading Chinese hardware manufacturers, benefiting from new digital infrastructure such as 5G, are tapping into productivity gains with digitalization. Local governments also encourage SMEs to invest in R&D and make branding and differentiation permanent solutions.

According to the official Canton Fair official website, more than 129,600 hardware and tools have been uploaded as of now. “With higher enterprise innovation awareness and capabilities, light, thin, short, and small products are beginning to trend,” said Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the  Canton Fair. For example, there are hand tools of bold, creative, and ergonomic design, made of exquisite materials, possessing aesthetic and functional values. When it comes to production, advanced processes such as digital control, one-time clamping, and multi-station integrated machine completion offer great progress in accuracy. Products such as pneumatic tools and gardening tools have gradually outperformed well-known European and American brands.

China is the world’s giant hardware producer, processor, and exporter. Driven by innovation, characteristic industry bases have been established in coastal provinces including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Shandong. With the further tapping of industrial clusters, China is becoming the global center for intelligent  hardware manufacturing.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email  for more opportunities.