Hub for knives, scissors to expand ties with foreign firms for stable development

Yangjiang in Guangdong province is sitting on a myriad of opportunities to consolidate its status as a major global production base for high-quality knives and scissors, and cooperate further with the rest of the world, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement.

The coastal city in western Guangdong is sparing no effort to expand exchanges with overseas entities to further develop its knives and scissors industry.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city's hardware, knives and scissors industry has developed rapidly, with market entities increasing to nearly 10,000 households in recent years following deepened reform and openingup policies, according to Yu Jinfu, deputy Party secretary and mayor of Yangjiang.

In 2022, the export volume of Yangjiang's hardware, knives and scissors increased by 48.7 percent compared to that in 2019, demonstrating the strong resilience and vitality of the key growth sector, he said.

Yangjiang, which has a history of more than 1,400 years making knives and scissors, is now known as "capital of Chinese knives and scissors" and has formed large-scale industrial clusters for the same with a complete industrial chain and diverse product categories.

The city is also known as the "export base of Chinese knives and scissors" and "a global procurement base of Chinese knives and scissors".

"Yangjiang will value openness and sharing with the rest of the world and expand cooperation with foreign firms to accelerate its high-quality development and high-level opening-up in the following months," Yu said at the opening ceremony of the 22nd China International Hardware Knives and Scissors Fair held in the city in late October.

Yu said he expects the fair to continuously adhere to the concept of "openness, communication, cooperation, sharing and win-win development", and help build a bridge for economic and trade cooperation, technological exchanges, and shared business opportunities for market players going forward.

The city government, he said, will continue to make great efforts to create more business opportunities for investors and business representatives from around the world.

Yu said the local government welcomes more investors and business people from around the world to expand exchanges and cooperation.

During the fair, relevant departments in Yangjiang signed letters of intent and cooperation agreements with Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines and Thailand to increase its reach in the global market.

The city government also signed a cooperation strategic framework agreement with the RCEP Industry Cooperation Committee, and is planning to establish a cooperation mechanism to further strengthen exchanges with business associations of countries and regions involved in the BRI.

According to official statistics, Yangjiang's annual production of hardware, knives and scissors has exceeded 55 billion yuan ($7.86 billion), accounting for about 70 percent of China's total and 85 percent of its export value.

The city's hardware, knives and scissors products are now sold to more than 130 countries and regions, mostly to developed nations and regions.

Foreign visitors check out products displayed during the 22nd China (Yangjiang) International Hardware Knives and Scissors Fair in Yangjiang in October.  ZHENG CAIXIONG/CHINA DAILY

Chen Xiaofeng, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangdong Committee, said the hardware, knives and scissors sector is a pillar industry in Yangjiang that plays a big part in the city's economic development.

"With the fair continually improving its professionalization, marketization and internationalization, it has now become the world's largest hardware, knives and scissors exhibition and one of Guangdong's seven major professional exhibitions that helps link Yangjiang to the rest of the world," he said.

"In addition to exhibiting the latest products and technologies, the fair has built a good platform for Sino-foreign exchanges and cooperation," Chen said.

He urged companies and exhibitors to seize the opportunities to expand exchanges and cooperation while making efforts to increase their presence in both domestic and foreign markets.

Chen said his council will deepen cooperation with Yangjiang to promote the city's hardware, knives and scissors industry to achieve green development, digital empowerment and intelligent transformation in the future.

China, ASEAN and BRI-related countries have great potential in advancing exchanges and cooperation, said Xu Ningning, executive president of the China-ASEAN Business Council and chairman of the RCEP Industry Cooperation Committee.

China, BRI-related economies and RCEP member countries should make a big push to strengthen industrial cooperation, optimize regional industrial layouts and more effectively allocate resources, said Xu, who is also the chief Chinese expert on China-ASEAN businesses.

The RCEP agreement, which took effect on Jan 1 last year, covers 15 Asia-Pacific economies: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 10 member states of ASEAN. It has created the world's largest free trade bloc by promoting regional economic integration through tariff concessions and other trade and investment liberalization and facilitation measures.

The RCEP region covers a market of 2.2 billion people, or nearly 30 percent of the world's population, with a combined GDP of $26.2 trillion, or about 30 percent of global GDP, accounting for nearly 28 percent of global trade.

Major Chinese knives and scissors makers attending the fair spared no effort to expand exchanges and cooperation with their foreign counterparts, particularly those from BRI-involved and RCEP member countries and regions.

Shibazi, a major Chinese producer of knives and scissors, is seeking expansion via cooperation with foreign counterparts during the 22nd China (Yangjiang) International Hardware Knives and Scissors Fair in Yangjiang in October.  ZHENG CAIXIONG/CHINA DAILY

Zhong Jialiang, general manager of Beijing Wangmazi Technology Co Ltd, said the company is seeking to increase its presence in BRI-involved markets and RCEP member countries, while making efforts to consolidate its traditional markets — the United States and Europe.

According to Zhong, Wangmazi reached a sales value of more than 700 million yuan, including about 500 million yuan from overseas sales, last year.

Zhong said the knives and scissors industry has broad development prospects.

Previously, many Chinese families used only one kitchen knife to chop, cut, slice or peel meat, vegetables and fruit, he said.

"Many households now use knives with different functions to deal with different kinds of foods in their kitchens, making the market for knives and scissors bigger," he added.

Knives and scissors can also be made into handicrafts and gifts, he said.

Sending someone a caidao (kitchen knife) has good connotations as it has a similar pronunciation to wealth arriving in Chinese, added Zhong.

"Caidao symbolizes the arrival of wealth in Chinese," he said.

"Compared to big-name foreign knives and scissors, domestic products that can compete with foreign products in terms of quality lack in popularity," he added.

Ni Qiong, a sales manager with Guangdong Inwin Industrial Group, said it will make greater efforts to develop the markets in BRI economies and RCEP member countries in the near future.

Currently, 95 percent of Ni's products are exported to the US, Europe and Russia.

Wajid Niaz, a business representative from Pakistan, said Yangjiang can further develop new markets.

"Yangjiang's knives and scissors are of good quality and have a wide range. I can always buy the right products in the city," said Niaz, who has attended the China (Yangjiang) International Hardware Knives and Scissors Fair more than 10 times.

Zhong Min, chairman of Yangjiang-based Guangdong Jinhui Knife and Scissors Inc, said Yangjiang's companies have great potential to expand cooperation with Southeast Asia and the BRI markets.

"After some entrepreneurs from Yangjiang paid multiple group visits to Southeast Asian countries in the first half of this year, they found that these countries — with a large population — have strong market vitality, but they attract relatively lesser attention from big-name international brands; therefore, Yangjiang's space for cooperation with Southeast Asian and BRI economies is huge," said Zhong.

Covering an exhibition floor space of more than 20,000 square meters, the 22nd China (Yangjiang) International Hardware Knives and Scissors Fair aimed to further advance global exchanges and cooperation in the industry. It provided more than 700 exhibition booths to participants from around the world.

A total of 269 companies from China and abroad participated in the four-day event, organizers said.

More than 10,000 professional buyers, traders and business representatives visited the fair, which was held from Oct 19 to 22.

China's major knives and scissors makers, including Shibazi, Zhangxiaoquan and Wangmazi, also set up booths at the fair, aiming to seek new partnerships with foreign counterparts.

In addition to knives and scissors, special household items and other kitchen supplies, the exhibits included stainless steel products, daily hardware, steel tools, construction hardware, horticultural equipment, packaging and decoration materials and hardware machinery.

The fair was held offline for the first time after a gap of three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.