Current status of Chinese hydraulic fittings industry:
There are many hydraulic fittings factories distributed across China, but they are mainly concentrated in six cities: Ningbo, Yuyao, Yuhuan, and Zhuji in Zhejiang Province. Hejian and Hengshui in Hebei Province.
Due to the concentration of hydraulic fitting factories, a corresponding industrial supply chain has developed. These six cities have certain advantages in terms of scale, quality, and price of their hydraulic fitting factories.
According to government regulations, the format for registering company names is: city name + company name. This makes it easy to determine which city the supplier is from.
Although the price and quality levels of factories are different, but they can be divided into two types based on their target markets: OEM and repair-shop type.
OEM Quality Fittings
Ningbo: The Birthplace of Hydraulic Fittings Production
Ningbo, known for its long-standing history in hydraulic fittings production, saw the inception of this industry in 1990 with the company WINNER, who developed all drawings & standards of the China hydraulic industry.
(WINNER had been sold to Eaton in 2005 as EATON|WINNER, then in 2021 EATON’s hydraulics business has been acquired by Danfoss.)
This region primarily targets Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in civil engineering and agricultural machinery, demanding high-quality, reliable performance, especially under impulse pressure conditions.
Quality Control Standards
Most of Ningbo factories adhere to stringent quality control measures according to corresponding standards, including:
- Material Quality: Only electric furnace steel from certified suppliers is used.
- In-Progress Inspections: Workers perform checks every 5-10 pieces to ensure dimensions are within tolerance, halting production to replace worn tools if necessary.
- Warehouse Quality Checks: Quality control personnel conduct sampling inspections, initiating a 100% inspection if any defects are detected.
Repair Shop Quality Fittings
Latecomers in the Market
Some factories entered the hydraulic fittings market later and adopted different strategies to compete. Their primary market is repair shops, where the emphasis is on lower costs rather than high-quality performance.
Cost-Cutting Measures
To reduce production costs, the repair-shop type factories often employ the following practices:
- Inferior Materials: Use of uncertified, lower-quality materials from small, illegal mills.
- Simplified Processes: Streamlining production steps at the expense of quality, such as using tubes instead of drilling holes, welding instead of one-piece construction, and using a self-made heating device instead of vacuum furnace annealing.
- Reduced Inspections: Minimizing quality control checks to speed up production and cut costs.
These strategies enable these factories to offer prices approximately 40% lower than those OEM type, attracting many clients in the maintenance sector. Repair shops often prioritize cost over longevity, cause their penalties for quality issues are minimal, the worst thing is to change the hose assembly for the client.
Choosing the Right Fittings
For Heavy-Duty Equipment
If your client operates heavy-duty outdoor equipment, such as excavators, which require fittings to withstand impulse working pressure, it is advisable to opt for OEM quality fittings.
For Low and Static Pressure Applications
For clients dealing with low and static pressure applications, such as plastic injection machines, repair shop quality fittings can be sufficient.
Case Study: The Consequences of Poor Quality
An illustrative example is a cement pump truck that experienced oil leaks after only three days of operation due to using substandard repair-type fittings. The fittings’ material was not standard steel, underscoring the importance of choosing appropriate quality levels based on the application.
Market Dynamics and Additional Information
Due to intense price competition from repair-type factories, some companies have shifted strategies by purchasing half-finished pieces of repair-type. These pieces are then zinc-plated locally and sold as “OEM type” at around 20% lower prices.
They particularly like to use this trick on customers who are not aware of the details, such as overseas buyers.
This practice often involves using inferior steel, produced by illegal small mills, without legal material certificates or quality guarantees.
This steel, made from iron chips and scraps, serves different purposes for different layers in one furnace:
- Upper Layer: For angle iron production.
- Middle Layer: With fewer impurities, used for round bars in hose fittings.
- Bottom Layer: For rebar production.
The biggest problem of this steel has not passed NDE (non-destructive examination), there may have tiny cracks inside the steel bar
More information, please contact us
If you have any questions or want to learn more about the six cities’ hydraulic fittings factories, please contact us.
And in this article “TOP 10 Chinese Hydraulic Fittings Suppliers”, you can find information about the current top 10 OEM-quality hydraulic fittings factories, which are recognized by the majority of the industry professionals.
