Gardening Tools

The gardening tool manufacturing industry in China is set to grow dramatically in 2005, as China suppliers target potentially high-growth European Union markets.

Heightened demand, together with increased raw-material costs and the rise of the powered gardening tool category are likely to have a strong impact on your sourcing options.

Now you can find new opportunities and source more cost-efficiently in the face of such rapid change, with in-depth profiles of China's leading garden tool manufacturers.

Plus, in this report, you'll receive a comprehensive A-to-Z overview of the entire gardening tool industry in China. Benefit from inside information on industry changes and forecasts of upcoming trends.

What you'll get

In-depth profiles of 15 major gardening tool manufacturers providing detailed information on suppliers' product offerings, manufacturing capabilities and future plans. Based on in-depth factory inspections and exhaustive interviews with senior managers, this information is available nowhere else

Concise supplier-profile tables for 50 additional manufacturers containing core sourcing information such as production capacities, output ratios and major export markets

A Product Gallery featuring 125 best-selling gardening tools with detailed specifications and full-color pictures

The results of Global Sources' latest supplier survey, summarizing price, product, production and R&D forecasts through 2005

This report covers: hand tools and equipment, powered tools and equipment, and water-management equipment

How you'll benefit

Learn the advantages of sourcing from Zhejiang province — China's main production base for gardening tools and a central sourcing hub for powered gardening tools

Find out which companies are upgrading their technological capabilities and what new products may emerge from these improvements

Discover what R&D teams are doing in China to make ergonomic tools that weigh less, but have more functions

Identify manufacturers that have direct export capabilities and also discover the advantages of importing through I/E companies

Executive summary

With China's exports of hand and water-management tools totaling US$123 million for 2003 alone, and powered tools growing, China is one of the world's major producers of gardening tools and is well on its way to the top.

Suppliers in China offer three basic types of gardening tools—hand tools, powered tools and water-management equipment. Because hand tools are the easiest and most inexpensive to produce, they dominate production and exports. The relatively mature product line accounts for about 70 percent of gardening tool exports from China.

Water-management equipment is the second largest product category, making up 20 percent of gardening tool exports. And although powered tools account for only 10 percent of export production, the product line is the fastest growing among the three types of gardening tools.

Hand tools covered in this report include shovels, spades, rakes, forks, scissors, mattocks, cultivators, trowels, pole pruners, loppers, saws, shears and sets made up of various combinations of these tools.

Water-management tools include basic hoses, hose reels and carts, fittings such as gardening hose nozzles and hose couplings, air hose reels and watering cans, and automatic equipment. Powered models include hedgecutters, tree pruners, leaf blowers, shredders, lawnmowers and chainsaws.

Increasing demand from the United States and the European Union is driving more gardening hand-tool makers to diversify into powered tools. In addition, many power hand-tool suppliers are also venturing into the gardening power-tool sector.

Expansion has so far been steady for this young industry. Exports grew 23 percent year on year from US$66.6 million pegged during the first six months of 2003 to US$81.7 million in 2004.

In the Global Sources Supplier Survey featured in this report, almost all respondents forecast an increase in sales in 2005. This optimism is partly due to makers' planned expansion of output and capacity, and partly to the production of gardening tools shifting from other countries to China.

There is, however, the possibility of product saturation as China's output of gardening tools might be too much for markets to absorb. Demand in the US, for instance, is forecast to grow only by single digits until 2007. The EU was listed by majority of respondents as the market with the best export growth potential. To take advantage of this market's potential, China makers are buying equipment or building new factories, mainly to upgrade capability to deal with the technical requirements of producing environment-friendly gardening tools, which are popular in the EU.

Like almost all industries in China the gardening tools sector is also grappling with increasing raw material costs. As a result, many makers plan to inflate product prices in the year ahead.

Industry overview

China is one of the world's major producers and exporters of gardening tools. With exports of hand and water management tools totaling US$123 million for 2003 alone, and that of powered tools growing rapidly, China is well on its way to the top.

The industry's expansion has so far been steady: Exports grew 23 percent year on year from US$66.6 million pegged during the first six months of 2003 to US$81.7 million for the same period in 2004. Export figures for powered gardening tools and equipment are not available.

China customs figures for the past two years show that there are about 700 hand tool exporters and 90 water management tool exporters. Although there is no reliable data for export, it is for certain that the number is growing rapidly, especially in Zhejiang province where a thriving power tool industry (including saws, routers and the like) has spawned the development of powered gardening tools.

Growing demand for powered tools in world markets is also encouraging suppliers to diversify into this product line, and will result in an increase in both exports and number of suppliers.

Gardening tools from China are categorized into three types: hand tools and equipment, water-management equipment, and powered gardening tools and equipment. Because they are easy and inexpensive to produce, hand tools dominate the industry.

In contrast to other China-made products that have one or two main markets, China's gardening tools find their way to all parts of the world. Asia, North America and the European Union each account for almost a fourth of exports and the rest is exported to Africa, the Middle East and other destinations. The biggest individual destination country by far is the United States, which absorbs US$50.3 million worth of China-made gardening hand and water-management tools annually. Japan is a far second, importing US$22.4 million worth of tools.

A large portion of exports is done through trading companies, mainly because they can offer buyers a wide range of products. In the past two years, trading companies handled 48 percent of hand tool exports and half of water-management tool shipments.

This is changing, however, as more and more suppliers venture into the manufacture of all three product categories. Around 40 percent of China suppliers now produce either two or three of the categories, while the rest continue to specialize in one.

Industry composition
Mainland China's gardening tools industry consists mainly of privately owned companies, even though it started on the strength of capital from Taiwan and Hong Kong makers that set up shop in the mainland about 12 years ago to take advantage of lower costs.

The majority of these private manufacturers are small and midsize companies with capacity and output ranging from 110,000 to 155,000 units a month. There are also large-size companies capable of producing up to 300,000 powered tools, 600,000 water management tools or 1 million hand tools a month.

The past 12 months have seen many companies post phenomenal growth of as high as 230 percent, although average growth is 23 percent. While suppliers of hand tools and powered models enjoyed steady growth in the past year, suppliers in the water-management equipment line were those that posted exceptional growth. Zhongshan Golden Garden achieved exceptional growth of 230 percent last year, and most other companies in the line enjoyed double-digit growth. About 98 percent of suppliers featured in this report forecast export growth to continue next year.

Samples of supplier profile

Cheering Garden Tools Co. Ltd
Established 10 years ago, Cheering Garden exports all output to the United States, Europe and Australia. Ninety percent of exports are on an OEM basis and the rest is under the in-house Greelo brand.

The company counts Yates (Australia), Uniflex (Italy) and Asda (Germany) as major OEM customers. Exports reached US$10 million in 2003. The company's factory runs at 100 percent capacity, producing 500,000 gardening tools each month.

Products
Cheering Garden offers 50 product series in about 300 varieties, including pressure-sprayer systems, hose-reel carts and garden hoses, sprinklers, watering-tool fittings, shears and loppers. Water-management equipment account for 70 percent of output and hand tools account for the rest. Three models of pressure sprayers and five shears are GS-approved.

Pressure-sprayer systems, making up half of water management equipment output, sell from US$0.3 to US$5.50. Garden hoses—priced at US$0.15 per meter—and hose-reel carts—priced from US$4 to US$5—each account for 20 percent. Watering tool fittings, including spray nozzles, spray-wand sets and sprinklers, make up the rest.

Short-handled tools, priced from US$1 to US$2, account for 30 percent of gardening hand tools. These include stainless steel rakes, trowels, forks, weeders and shape groove knives. Shears and loppers make up 70 percent of hand tools and range from US$2 to US$4. Price adjustments are based mainly on raw material costs.

The R&D team, consisting of 10 engineers specializing in mold design and 10 structural and process engineers, uses AutoCAD, Pro/E and UG software in new design development. One series of new products is released annually. R&D efforts currently focus on metallic spray wands.

Cheering Garden uses steel and steel tubes, aluminum tubes and different types of plastic such as PP, PE and PVC. Eighty percent of raw materials is sourced locally, while the rest is imported from Korea, Taiwan and India. Customers can request for imported materials to be used on a particular product. Cheering Garden requires suppliers to have quality certifications.

Manufacturing
The company has a 19,200sqm factory in Shunde that is equipped with one CNC machining center and nine 3-D EDMs for mold manufacturing and mending, as well as lathes and drilling machines for precision machining. Mold design, injection, extrusion, blow-molding, heat treatment and assembly are also done in-house.

Sample of product gallery

Hand tools and equipment Cangzhou Jiaxin Model: DPP4118C Minimum order: 3,000 units Packaging type: Based on buyer's request Delivery time: 15 days Indicated price: US$2.95 Description: Stainless steel fork with wooden handle; features rustproof, polished finish

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Global Sources Industry-specific China Sourcing Reports

All this column of information contained in China Sourcing Reports is the result of original, independent and impartial research conducted by Global Sources analysts.

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