The Industrial-grade Steel Threaded Nail Industry in Recent Times: Dual-driven Growth Through Structural Optimization And Technology Innovation

As a core category of basic industrial consumables, the industrial-grade steel threaded nails industry has recently shown a development trend of "steady increase in total volume and accelerated optimization of structure". Benefiting from multiple favorable factors such as increased infrastructure investment, intelligent upgrading of manufacturing industry, and expansion of the new energy industry, the industry's market size has steadily grown. At the same time, technological innovation and environmental protection policies are driving the industry towards higher-end and greener transformation, and the regional development pattern has also shown new characteristics.
The growth momentum of the market presents a multi-polar driving pattern. Data shows that the market size of the steel nail industry in China will continue to expand in 2025, and it is expected to increase from 32 billion yuan in 2023 to over 45 billion yuan by 2030, with an average annual compound growth rate of 5.2%. Among them, industrial-grade steel threaded nails, as basic consumables for construction and mechanical manufacturing, have stable demand, while the growth in the high-end market segment is particularly significant. The proportion of traditional carbon steel threaded nails used in traditional construction is gradually decreasing, while the demand for corrosion-resistant and high-strength steel threaded nails used in fields such as new energy photovoltaic brackets and wind power towers is rapidly increasing. The market size of corrosion-resistant steel nails for photovoltaic brackets is expected to exceed 2.5 billion yuan by 2030.
Technological upgrading has become the core competitiveness of the industry. The industry's research and development investment has continued to increase. By 2025, the average research and development intensity has reached 2.8%. New processes such as laser surface strengthening and nano-coating have been accelerated for application, significantly enhancing the corrosion resistance and service life of steel light rod nails. The Dacromet coating technology has extended the salt spray resistance time of the products to 1,000 hours, and its penetration rate in high-end applications has rapidly increased. At the same time, the transformation to intelligent production has achieved remarkable results. The automation rate of the entire industry has exceeded 65%, and the popularization of fully automatic cold heading machines has enabled the single machine's daily production capacity to exceed 500,000 pieces, which is three times more efficient than traditional equipment. Combined with the digital quality traceability system, the product defect rate has been reduced from 3‰ to 0.5‰.
Environmental protection policies have forced industries to undergo green transformation. The "Steel Industry Ultra-Low Emission Transformation Plan" will be fully implemented in 2025, and the capacity of non-compliant enterprises may be eliminated by 15%. This has compelled enterprises to increase their investment in environmental protection. Industry enterprises are all promoting the upgrading of dust removal equipment and the substitution of clean energy. The usage rate of natural gas has risen to 42%. At the same time, a scrap steel recycling system has been established. The utilization rate of scrap steel in the industry will reach 32% in 2025, effectively reducing raw material costs and environmental pressure. Green production capacity has become an important threshold for enterprises in market competition, and the coverage rate of environmentally friendly surface treatment processes is gradually increasing.
The regional development pattern exhibits a gradient optimization feature. The Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Bohai Rim region remain the core industrial clusters. By 2025, these three regions will collectively contribute 67% of the national output. Meanwhile, the central and western provinces have seen a steady increase in their production capacity thanks to policy incentives and industrial transfer benefits. It is expected that their share will rise from 18% in 2022 to 26% in 2030, becoming the fastest-growing regional sector. The industry's leading effect continues to strengthen. The market share of the top 5 enterprises has increased from 31% in 2020 to 38% in 2025. Leading enterprises such as Baosteel Metal have seized the high-end market by means of technological research and development and intelligent transformation.
In the future, the industrial-grade steel threaded nail industry will continue to focus on material innovation, process upgrading and green manufacturing. The proportion of high-end special products will further increase. The export markets for new energy support and along the "Belt and Road" routes are expected to become new growth poles. Enterprises with core technologies and green production capabilities will have greater development opportunities.