As a core category in the general fastener field, zinc-coated steel disk head screws have shown a steady growth trend in the wave of manufacturing upgrading, thanks to their advantages of convenient installation and strong anti-loosening property. In 2024, the relevant market size in China had reached 4.86 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 8.1%. The output exceeded 1.42 million tons. Among them, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in East China contributed nearly 60% of the national production capacity, forming an industrial cluster centered on Haiyan and Wenzhou. This growth is not only attributed to the stable demand in traditional home appliances and construction sectors, but also inseparable from the pull of emerging industries such as new energy vehicles and photovoltaic power.
Technological upgrading has become the core engine for improving quality and efficiency in the industry. Under the pressure of environmental protection policies, the industry is accelerating its farewell to the traditional hexavalent chromium passivation process. The popularization rate of chromium-free passivation technology has exceeded 60%, reducing the rejection rate of products exported to Europe and America to below 0.7%. The zinc coating treatment process has been continuously optimized. By precisely controlling the galvanizing temperature and alloy ratio, the salt spray test life of the product has been increased from 500 hours in the traditional process to over 1,200 hours, significantly enhancing its applicability in scenarios such as outdoor photovoltaic brackets. Meanwhile, the popularization of AI visual inspection systems has enabled the detection accuracy rate of head cracks to reach 99.6%, solving the long-standing problem of quality consistency that has plagued the industry.
The change in the downstream demand structure is driving the transformation of products towards high-end. The home appliance industry remains the largest application field, accounting for 36.7%, but the growth in the new energy vehicle sector is the most rapid. The amount of screws used per electric vehicle has increased by 30% compared to traditional fuel vehicles. The application proportion of high-strength models with a tensile strength of ≥800MPa in battery packaging has risen from 14% in 2023 to 21% in 2024. In the field of architectural decoration, the application of electrophoretic coating technology has enabled products to achieve a corrosion resistance of 2,000 hours in Marine environments, with a market share exceeding 65%. In addition, the demand for customized products driven by special scenarios such as outdoor LED displays is expected to increase by as much as 23.4% year-on-year in 2024.
The development of the industry still faces opportunities and challenges. In terms of raw materials, although the fluctuations in steel prices in 2024 brought cost pressure, enterprises achieved stable profits through large-scale procurement and product structure optimization. The process of domestic substitution has been accelerating continuously. Currently, the domestic production rate of mid-to-low-end products has approached 100%, but 38% of ultra-high strength products above 12.9 grade still rely on imports, which has become the focus of enterprises' research and development efforts. At the policy level, the new version of the "Green Manufacturing Standard for Fasteners" to be implemented in 2025 clearly requires that the deviation of zinc coating thickness be controlled within ±5% and promotes traceable coding, which will further regulate market competition.
Looking ahead to 2025, it is expected that the industry market size will increase to 5.3 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 8.6%. With the increase of overseas infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions, the export market is expected to continue to recover, and platforms such as the Shanghai International Fastener Industry Expo will accelerate technology transformation and industrial chain connection. In the future, the upgrading of green processes, breakthroughs in high-end products and the expansion of overseas markets will become the core development directions of the zinc-coated steel disk head screw industry.