Interview- Yushung Metal Products Co., Ltd.
1. Tell us your company’s history, and business info including factory area, production & QC equipment, average capacity, market mapping, product application, etc.
Yushung Metal Products Co., Ltd. established in 1995 specializes in making various fasteners made from copper-based alloy including silicon bronze, phosphor bronze, aluminum bronze, brass, copper, etc. Its 3,000m2 factory located in Ping Sheng Industrial Zone in Guandong Province of China has over 200 sets of equipment including cold forging machines, threading machines, wood screw threading machines, general lathes, numerical control lathes, various lathes & mills, and thread tapping machine. It also has inspection instruments such as Micrometer, screw gage, depth gaga, projector, tension gage.
We produce around 40 tons of assorted copper-based alloy fasteners per month which are exported to the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, France, Spain, the Middle East, etc. Additionally, our domestic sales proportion is on a year-over-year growing trend along with the rising domestic market demand. These products are mainly used for a wide range of applications such as shipbuilding, power generation, electric application, mining, lightning protection, petro-chemistry, etc.
2. To many companies, the U.S. market is undoubtedly one of the critical markets in the world. What is the importance of the U.S. market to your company? How many percentage does the U.S. market account for in your company’s export? How long has your company been cooperating with the U.S. market? What are the characteristics of the U.S. market in your opinion?
The U.S. is our critical and largest export destination, accounting for 30%-40% of export sales. Our clients in the U.S. give us a great deal of support and have excellent credibility and pay on time. In more than a decade of cooperation with our U.S. clients, they are deliberate and responsible contract followers, and we benefit a lot from them. The U.S. fastener companies have a higher level of profession and place orders in the form of multiple small lots; therefore they set higher requirements for suppliers.
3. With which product do you plan to expand the market share in the U.S. market? What is the advantage of your company and products compared with other components?
We are specialized in cold working and hot working of copper alloy. Based on our knowledge over material properties and control over material quality, our Silicon bronze (C65100, C65500), aluminum bronze (C63000, C63200), and phosphor bronze (C51000, C52100) sell extremely well in the U.S. market. As for production, we have professional, unique, and highly-efficient manufacturing process with one-stop shopping service to satisfy our clients and can save substantial cost for them. Naturally we have earned an irreplaceable position in supply.
4. The U.S. has been a competitive fastener market. How would you plan for your sales network and promote your company and products?
We opened up the U.S. sales channels through the distributors system. We only have one distributor in each U.S. state; therefore, we do not need to face end-users directly. Each distributor is advantageous in collecting intelligence of a specific market. With our distributors’ promotion, we only need to focus on ensuring our product quality, establishing smooth communication with every distributor, and complementing with each other.
5. The global fastener market is continuously changing. Regarding the U.S. market, do you see any challenge or trend? How will you react to that?
As the labor cost continuous to rise, so does our pressure in production. Moreover, most young people are not willing to do this tiring and greasy job and this leads to a shortage of talents. On the other side of the matter, some of the Americans started domestic procurement and thus our orders somewhat reduced. We can only reduce various costs as low as we can to provide clients with better balance between the price and service and thereby fetch more orders.
6. Regarding the China market, counterpart competition is more fierce, and the strong domestic demand starts to attract foreign investors. How do you look at this change? Will you create another new supply line for domestic demand?
We have more product demand from the domestic market and have a significant advantage as a rare bronze fastener maker. A few years ago, we began to focus on the domestic market and reached an ideal outcome. The entry of foreign investors does not cause too many effects on us. We also cooperate with foreign companies every year and supply to them.
7. Beside the U.S., is there any other country or region (Latin America, Asia, etc.) that you would like to tap into? If not, please specify to which U.S. state are your products exported.
Facing the development of globalization, we have sold our products to more than 30 countries in the world. A market has limited demand, and other countries have increasing demand for bronze fasteners, and thus we have to satisfy clients’ needs. Our products are available in states like, California, New Jersey, Tennessee, Minnesota, etc.
8. What is your future plan to maintain competitiveness and face future challenge?
Currently our copper alloy fasteners are made from 4 types of materials: silicon bronze, phosphor bronze, aluminum bronze, or brass. We will develop more copper-based alloy fasteners to satisfy more market demands, and continue to test our products via accredited testing labs to earn confidence from our clients.
