From miniature bearings with a diameter of 5 millimeters to oversized bearings weighing 4000 tons, China’s bearing industry is quietly spinning the balance in the global market.
Although small, bearings can be called the “heart” of industrial manufacturing. From household appliances and precision instruments to wind power generation, shield tunnels, and aircraft carriers, almost all machinery that requires rotation cannot do without it. As one of the world’s largest bearing production countries, China’s product cost-effectiveness is showing increasingly strong competitiveness in the global market.
01 Cost advantage: Dual drive of materials and processes
The cost advantage of Chinese bearings first comes from effective control of raw material costs. The direct material cost of bearings accounts for about 60% -70% of the production cost.
The emergence of the Wafangdian Bearing Steel Centralized Procurement Platform has further reduced raw material costs through large-scale procurement. The platform has achieved spot trading of about 5000 tons and futures trading of 3 large transactions totaling 1600 tons, helping enterprises save nearly 2 million yuan in costs.
The overall trend of bearing steel prices in 2025 is stable with a slight decrease. As of May 9, 2025, the average price of 50mm (continuous casting) bearing steel in China is 4940 yuan/ton3.
At the same time, Chinese bearing enterprises continue to innovate in manufacturing processes, improving production efficiency. For example, Zhejiang Jinwo Precision Industry Co., Ltd. has reduced unit costs through production line and process optimization, resulting in a 2% increase in gross profit margin.
02 Technological Innovation: The Transformation from “Following” to “Leading”
The Chinese bearing industry is gradually shifting from cost competition to technology driven high value-added competition. In 2025, China successfully developed the world’s first 4000 ton super large bearing, with a groundbreaking breakthrough in parameters.
This “steel heart” with a diameter of over 4 meters and a load-bearing capacity of 4000 tons has a processing accuracy of 0.001 millimeters, equivalent to 1/70 of a human hair. Through the innovative new cage and green heat treatment process, the bearing’s lifespan has increased threefold under extreme working conditions, and the maintenance cost has been directly reduced by half.
Chinese enterprises have become unique in specific technological fields such as heat treatment without soft strips. After years of research and exploration, the technology of Xinqianglian Rotary Bearing Co., Ltd. has shown strong cost advantages in raw material selection and per ton processing fee.
03 Market Pattern: Domestic Competition and International Expansion
The competition in the Chinese bearing market is fierce, and the price index is showing a slight downward trend. From January to June 2025, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for the manufacturing industry of bearings, gears, and transmission components decreased year-on-year, reaching 98.4 in June, a decrease of 1.6%.
At the same time, Chinese companies are actively expanding into overseas markets. Zhejiang Jinwo Precision Industry Co., Ltd. is promoting the construction of a production base in Mexico and has obtained the “Certificate of Overseas Investment for Enterprises” issued by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce.
In the first half of 2025, Xiangyang Bearing’s revenue was 796 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.32%, but the net profit attributable to the parent company was -15.5302 million yuan, and the loss expanded by 25.18% year-on-year. This indicates that even with revenue growth, companies still face profitability challenges.
04 Application Fields: From Traditional Industries to Emerging Scenarios
The cost-effectiveness of bearing products varies significantly in different application fields. In the field of wind power, domestication of bearings has become the main path for wind turbine enterprises to reduce costs.
In theory, changing rolling bearings to sliding bearings and replacing 50% of sliding bearings can reduce gearbox costs by 6-20%; And the main shaft bearings and yaw pitch bearings are expected to reduce related costs by more than 20%.
In the automotive industry, from January to June 2025, domestic automobile production and sales increased by 12.5% and 11.4% respectively year-on-year, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 44.3%, providing a broad market for bearing enterprises.
Emerging fields such as robotics have also become a focus of layout for bearing enterprises. The research direction of Changsheng bearings mainly focuses on self-lubricating bearings applied to joints, products in some linear actuators, and related components of dexterous hands.
05 Policy Support: Building a Healthy Industrial Ecology
The Chinese government supports the development of the bearing industry through various means. Wafangdian City has reached strategic cooperation with Tianenlu (China) Enterprise Group to develop a new cluster development mode by using the industrial Internet platform.
At the same time, the government is promoting the construction of a bearing testing and inspection platform to provide public welfare services for the entire industrial cluster. Wafangdian City utilizes the local National Bearing and Pipeline Component Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center to provide guarantees and technical support for the full chain testing needs of the bearing industry, including system certification, standard inspection, and testing.
These policy measures will help improve product reliability, enhance the core competitiveness and brand influence of enterprises, and lay a solid foundation for building a modern bearing industry system and achieving high-quality development of the industry.
06 Future Trends: Green and Intelligent Development
In the future, the cost-effectiveness of China’s bearing industry will come more from green and intelligent transformation.
Wafangdian City is promoting the digitalization, intelligence, and green development of the bearing industry, enhancing the driving force for the development of the bearing industry. This includes promoting the construction of identification parsing system, assisting enterprises in building smart factories, promoting technological innovation, and improving product quality.
The application of industrial Internet platform is also deepening. The bearing cloud mall developed and constructed on the Sinopec Yipaike e-commerce platform fully utilizes its own resources and central enterprise resources to increase marketing efficiency and reduce costs for Wafangdian enterprises.
With the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reaching 44.3%, the trend of wind power bearing sliding replacing rolling is accelerating, and China’s bearing industry is ushering in a new round of growth opportunities.
From reducing raw material costs through the centralized procurement platform of Wafangdian, to breaking the foreign monopoly with the world’s first 4000 ton super large bearing, China is moving from a major bearing country to a strong bearing country.
The art of balancing cost and technology is being fully demonstrated on this seemingly insignificant industrial component.
