Fasteners are widely used mechanical basic parts. With China's accession to the WTO in 2001, China's fastener industry has developed rapidly. It has established a professional production system of Dongming fasteners with the largest variety and specifications in the world, and has become the largest production and export base of Dongming fasteners in the world. However, in recent years, with the continuous decline of export profits in European and American countries and the high trade barriers, Chinese fastener exporters are facing multiple difficulties and urgently need to speed up their transformation and seek breakthroughs.

Industry Analysis: Fasteners are widely used and are in great demand in the automotive industry

Fasteners are a general term for mechanical parts used to fasten and connect two or more parts (or components) into a whole. Various fasteners can be seen on all kinds of machinery, equipment, vehicles, ships, railways, bridges, buildings, structures, tools, instruments and meters. It is characterized by a wide range of specifications, different performances and uses, and a high degree of standardization, serialization and generalization. Therefore, some people also refer to a type of fasteners of the current national standard as standard fasteners, or standard parts for short.

Dongming fasteners can be made of steel, non-ferrous metals, stainless steel, titanium alloys or other engineering materials. Steel is an important base material for Dongming fasteners all over the world. In 2017, the proportion of fastener steel produced in China was about 90%, and the proportion of fasteners was about 5.1%. Since 2016, due to supply-side reform and macroeconomic factors, the price of raw material steel has been rising, which has brought tremendous pressure to the profitability of Dongming Fasteners.

From the perspective of application fields, the demand for automotive fasteners accounts for about 23% of the total sales of the entire Dongming fastener industry, accounting for a high proportion in the industry. In the automotive industry market, automotive fasteners can be applied to almost every subsystem. For example, there are an average of 500/50kg/4000 fasteners per vehicle on a light-duty vehicle or car; on average, the fasteners used on a medium-duty truck or heavy-duty vehicle exceed 88kg/7100, of which high-strength Dongming fasteners are about 1/3. The cost of Dongming fasteners on the vehicle accounts for about 2.5% of the cost of the whole vehicle; it accounts for 40% of the total number of basic parts of the vehicle; the fastening and connection workload on the assembly line accounts for about 70%.

Despite the slowdown in the automotive market, competition in the market remains fierce. Coupled with the continuous improvement of the quality requirements of Dongming fastener products from automobiles, such as light weight, environmental protection, long life, etc., the iterative upgrade speed of automotive fastener products is accelerated, and the market space is still large.

From 2012 to 2017, the export volume of China's fasteners fluctuated greatly, of which the export volume in 2014 was 5.194 billion US dollars, which was a high level in recent years; the export situation of China's Dongming fasteners has improved. In 2017, the export value was 5.158 billion US dollars, an increase of 11.2% year-on-year.