Chinese promotional products industrial clusters

China is a vast country with 34 provinces in total. The natural resources and geographical location of each province are totally different, so each province has its own unique industrial clusters.

Next, I will introduce to you the main products made by Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong, which are the most developed coastal provinces in China's foreign trade. This will help you find your target supplier more accurately, which may save you lots of sourcing time and purchase costs.

Shandong Province

1) Shandong Province is more famous for its wooden products, ranging from various kinds of wooden furniture to different wooden decorations, storage box, and etc. These factories are mainly concentrated in Cao County. In addition, Zibo City in Shandong also produces various kinds of ceramic mugs, while Linyi City is an important production base of willow and rattan products in China. Willow and rattan knitting products are pure manual work, but as there are fewer and fewer young people engaged in this kind of manual work now, perhaps in the next 15 years, when the existing manual workers are older, this kind of handicraft will gradually disappear. At the same time, Shandong also has a large number of textile factories, which mainly produce various specifications of towels, as well as clothing. Generally, goods in Shandong are exported through Qingdao port.

Jiangsu Province

2) Like Shandong Province, the textile industry is also one of the main industries in Jiangsu Province, where you could buy all kinds of household carpets, sports hats and gloves, clothing and so on. At the same time, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu mainly produces various kinds of glassware, such as various glass kitchen supplies, glasses, glass ornaments and so on. Yangzhou City mainly produces hotel supplies, such as disposable toothbrushes, toothpaste, slippers, hotel towels and so on. Meanwhile, it is also the main production base of plush toys. In addition, U-pillow made of memory form materials, which we often use in travel, is mainly from Nantong City. As Jiangsu Province is close to Shanghai, most of the goods produced by Jiangsu are shipped from Shanghai port.

Zhejiang Province

3) Zhejiang Province could be said to contain all categories of products, such as Taizhou City, where plastic products are abundant. Tongxiang produces all kinds of pen products. Yongkang produces all kinds of hardware and stainless steel products, such as stainless steel cups and various metal products. Lishui produces all kinds of wooden toys. Shaoxing produces all kinds of knitted socks, hats, gloves, etc. Ningbo produces a variety of LED lights, small household appliances, and stationery supplies. It gathers a large number of foreign trade companies here. At the same time, Zhejiang has the world's largest wholesale market of goods - Yiwu wholesale market, where you could find almost any goods. In addition, Zhejiang Province has a natural deep-water port - Ningbo port. These unique conditions make Zhejiang an important base for China's exports trade.

Fujian Province

4) The main products of Fujian Province are four categories - ceramic products, resin products, bamboo products, and footwear manufacturing.

Dehua County is known as one of China's three major ceramics capitals (the other two are Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province and Liling in Hunan Province), and its history of mass production of ceramics is more than 1200 years yet. Compared with other ceramics making cities, Dehua ceramics are mainly medium temperature ceramics, most are art ceramics.

Resin products are mainly produced in Quanzhou. At the same time, resin products are also subdivided into three categories as indoor furnishings, outdoor garden furnishings, and promotional gifts.

Nanping City, owing to its abundant bamboo resources, is now forming an industrial cluster of bamboo products. They produce various bamboo household furnishings and kitchen supplies.

In addition, Putian provides OEM and ODM services to major shoe brands, where you could find almost any shoes like slippers, leather shoes, sports shoes and so on. In addition, Putian has also concentrated on some manufacturers of small electronic gifts, such as calculators, timers, pedometers and so on.

Fujian's goods are generally transported through Xiamen port, and a small part of them are also exported through Shenzhen or Ningbo port.

Guangxi Autonomous Region

5) Compared with other provinces, Guangxi's foreign trade products are relatively single. For the limitations of natural resources (the main natural resources in Guangxi are forest resources) and many mountainous areas in Guangxi, there are only a few suitable plain areas to establish large-scale industrial zones or factories. In addition, there are no corresponding seaports in Guangxi. All export goods need to be transported through Shenzhen port in Guangdong, or Xiamen port in Fujian, which has a certain impact on the export industry in Guangxi.

The main products of Guangxi are grass and bamboo commodities and crafts. At the same time, Guangxi is an important source of wood hangers in China.

Guangdong Province

6) Finally, I would like to introduce the most important export province of China - Guangdong Province. Almost every city in Guangdong has its own industrial clusters, such as various consumer electronics (Bluetooth speakers, headphones, keyboards) and silica gel products in Dongguan; various lamps and appliances in Zhongshan and Shunde; Foshan is the famous furniture capital of China, where you could find various tables, chairs, sofas of different designs and materials; at the same time, Yangjiang produces all kinds of hardware and plastic tableware; Huaqiang North of Shenzhen is the world's largest wholesale market for consumer electronics, where you could find any computer & mobile phone accessories, creative electronic products and so on. At the same time, Shenzhen port is also a well-known maritime port.

Till now, you may find that Guangdong and Zhejiang have very similar places. They are both the provinces with the developed economy in China and mainly foreign trade industries with a good deepwater port each. Even the industrial clusters of these two provinces are very similar.

But in fact, there are still some differences between them.

The monthly wage in Zhejiang Province is about 700 US dollars, while it is at least 800 US dollars in Guangdong Province. This means that the labor cost of manufacturing in Guangdong is at least 15% higher than that in Zhejiang for the same product and the same material. Nevertheless, Guangdong also has an unparalleled ability to develop new products, especially in consumer electronics products. Almost all of the hugely popular products come from Guangdong. In addition, even if these two provinces have the same kind of products, they still have a different emphasis. Taking household appliances as an example, Zhejiang Province's superior products are mainly concentrated in some small-scale products such as fans, heaters, juicers, water dispensers and so on, while Guangdong, on the other hand, focuses on large commodities such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and televisions.

Purchasing promotional products in China is not an easy task. In addition to the sourcing capabilities, knowledge of  China's various regions of the industrial cluster, you also need to understand the business thinking and communication habits of some Chinese suppliers.

Due to different cultural backgrounds and thinking modes, sometimes you are even bothered by such issues - will they deliver on time according to my quality requirements? Are they really professional suppliers as they say? If I encounter quality problems, how could I negotiate with Chinese suppliers?

In my more than 13 years of professional career, I have assisted my customers to deal with all the above problems. I would also like to share these experiences on my LinkedIn to give more people who buy from China some help. If you have any other questions, I am happy to answer them. My email address is sales@plentmax.com.

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Angela Yu

Hi, I'm Angela, the founder of Plantmax. These articles share knowledge about promotional products from a Chinese supplier’s perspective.

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