Ø Japanese/Korean Brands: Almost Monopolistic in the High‑End Market
Japanese and Korean brands currently hold about 40% of the market, corresponding to approximately RMB 2.2 billion in sales, with their core strengths concentrated in C3‑class and above precision products. Their competitiveness does not come from a single process advantage, but from the long‑term accumulation of systemic capabilities, including material grade selection, heat treatment processes, grinding databases, inspection systems, and in‑house equipment modification capabilities.
Market feedback shows that some leading companies have monthly order intakes reaching hundreds of millions of yuan, with lead times stretched into 2027. Their capacity is essentially fully loaded, and some are no longer actively taking on new customers. This means two things: first, there is still a supply gap for high‑end screws; second, the window for domestic brands to enter is opening.
However, it must be emphasized that the emergence of a window does not mean opportunities will automatically materialize. Only companies that truly possess stable high‑end mass‑production capabilities can turn this window period into long‑term customer relationships.
Ø Mainland Chinese Brands: Market Share Rising Significantly, but "Stable Delivery" Remains the Watershed
Mainland Chinese brands now hold more than 30% of the rolling screw market in actual terms. If trapezoidal screws are included, the overall presence of domestic manufacturers is even stronger. The growth paths of domestic companies are diverse: some have expanded from guide rails, others have deep experience in military and special applications, some have built closed‑loop self‑production and self‑use systems around servo actuators, and still others have accumulated years of expertise in heavy‑load, large‑size products.
But for demand‑side equipment manufacturers, the most important thing to watch in domestic screw brands is not "whether they can make a sample," but "whether batch quality is stable, whether consistency across different batches can be maintained, and whether the response speed to supply anomalies is sufficiently rapid."
For C3‑class and above products, most domestic manufacturers already have the manufacturing capability, but compared with leading Japanese and Korean companies, there is still a noticeable gap in yield rates. This gap cannot be closed by a single piece of equipment, one engineer, or one project cycle—it is the result of long‑term process deposition, quality system construction, and accumulated customer validation.
Ø Taiwanese Brands: Following the Taiwanese Machine Tool Supply Chain, More Often a Backup Option
The combined size of Taiwanese brands in the Chinese screw market is approximately RMB 950 million, accounting for less than 20%, far behind the market share of Taiwanese guide rails in China. Many people's perception of Taiwanese brands comes mainly from their complete machine integration with guide rails on machine tools, but in the screw business itself, Taiwanese brands are not the strongest camp.
The main advantage of Taiwanese screw brands lies in their following of Taiwanese machine tool manufacturers' supply chain layouts in Mainland China. Their prices are more flexible than those of Japanese/Korean brands, but they still lag behind top Japanese/Korean players in technical depth and brand premium for high‑precision screws. For Mainland OEMs, Taiwanese brands are more of a transitional choice between cost and performance, rather than a core supplier that defines product performance boundaries.
Ø European/American Brands: Gradually Marginalized, Limited Influence in Mainstream Markets
European and American brands now hold less than 4% of the Chinese market. Most have either closed local production lines or withdrawn from local OEM systems. They now only have a few orders in niche areas such as laboratory equipment and aerospace. For most industrial equipment manufacturers, they are no longer a primary option in regular supply systems.
(Of course, there are still European/American suppliers like Schaeffler supplying screws used in automotive vehicle applications, but that market is distinctly different from the industrial equipment screw market discussed here, so we have not included it in the RMB 5.5 billion figure. If you are interested, feel free to leave a comment for discussion.)
03 The Core Challenge of Domestic Substitution: Not "Can We Make It," but "Can We Make It Stably"
Why can Japanese and Korean brands take 40% of the market and hold onto it? A key data point: in overall rolling screw shipments, C3‑class and above precision products account for about 60%. This is precisely the interval with the highest added value and the hardest part for domestic manufacturers to crack. It can be said that the difference between "being able to make it" and "being able to make it well" determines the reshuffling power of domestic manufacturers in the Chinese screw market. From a practical production‑line perspective, the difficulties are concentrated in three areas:
1. Equipment Is Only the Threshold; Process Is the Real Barrier
Owning C2‑ or C3‑class internal/external thread grinders only means that a company has the basic conditions to enter the high‑precision track. What truly makes the difference are wheel dressing strategies, coolant formulations, heat treatment deformation control, measurement compensation logic, and the process databases accumulated over the long term.
These capabilities cannot be quickly filled by short‑term capital investment, because they are not a set of equipment parameters, but a complete methodology built around "stable manufacturing." For high‑end customers, what they are buying is not a single sample, but a sustainable, replicable, and verifiable mass‑supply capability.
2. Material Differences Remain an Important Constraint for High‑End Substitution
Even leading Japanese and Korean companies, when trying to use high‑quality domestic specialty steels, often face issues with low conversion rates and insufficient stability, so they still predominantly use Japanese materials in the short term. This indicates that the metallographic structure, consistency, heat treatment response, and subsequent structural stability of materials are still critical prerequisites for the stability of high‑end screws.
Therefore, competition in high‑end screws has never been purely about processing capability, but a systemic competition involving materials, processes, equipment, inspection, and customer validation.
3. Capacity Constraints Are Providing an Import Window for Domestic Brands
Some Japanese and Korean companies have production schedules already planned into 2027, meaning high‑end customers cannot wait indefinitely. For domestic companies that have already achieved stable mass production of high‑end ground screws and obtained validation from leading customers, this is indeed a rare window for entry.
But the window will not last forever. Once customers complete dual‑source switching, supply relationships will re‑solidify. Therefore, the priority for domestic companies should not be chasing hot topics, but to quickly make "stable delivery" their most distinctive label.
04 From Procurement and Business Perspectives, How Should Companies Evaluate Screw Suppliers?
For OEMs, equipment manufacturers, and procurement teams, the last thing to do when selecting screw suppliers is to be misled by a single sample. It is recommended to focus on four indicators:
1. Batch‑to‑Batch Consistency
Sample qualification does not mean mass‑production qualification; the key is whether consistency can be maintained across multiple batches and multiple operating conditions.
2. Delivery Stability
Can delivery lead times be stable? Is capacity sustainable? How fast is the response and resolution when anomalies occur? This directly determines supply risk.
3. Process Explainability
Can the supplier explain key process control points? Do they have process data accumulation, rather than just providing final parameters?
4. Customer Validation Cycle
Truly entering a mainstream supply system usually cannot be accomplished in a single project, but requires a longer period of joint validation and continuous iteration. In other words, in high‑end screw procurement, companies are buying not just the product, but the supplier's process stability and delivery capability.
05 Planetary Roller Screws for Humanoid Robots: Worth Attention, but Not Overly Optimistic
It is true that humanoid robots have raised the profile of planetary roller screws. However, from an industrialization perspective, this market is still far from mature.
At this stage, the planetary roller screws used in humanoid robot joints are mostly micro‑specifications with diameters of 16‑20mm and lengths of 20‑30mm. In 2025, the selling price for a single planetary roller screw in the humanoid robot industry was generally above RMB 4,000, but by the first half of 2026, quotes of around RMB 500 per unit had already appeared in the Chinese market. This significant price gap indicates that the industry is still in a low‑price grabbing stage, not a stage of profitable scale.
More importantly, the technology roadmap itself has not yet been finalized. Many senior executives at leading screw manufacturers have publicly expressed reservations about the planetary roller screw route, arguing that for the light‑load scenarios of humanoid robots, tendon‑driven solutions or other simpler, cheaper ball‑based solutions could also prove viable.
Therefore, for most screw companies, over the next three to five years, the truly important market to track remains the RMB 5.5 billion rolling screw main market and the actual delivery capabilities for high‑end product lines. Humanoid robots can be considered as a long‑term visionary space, but they should not be the sole basis for short‑term business decisions.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Competition in the Screw Industry Still Comes Back to Manufacturing Itself
The RMB 7.7 billion Chinese screw market is not huge, but it is deep enough and the barriers are high enough. This industry does not win on concepts; ultimately, it returns to the most basic manufacturing capabilities: can precision be stabilized, can delivery schedules be kept, can costs be controlled, and can problems be closed out quickly?
Mainland Chinese brands have already established a strong presence in trapezoidal screws and mid‑to‑low‑end ball screws, but what truly determines the industry landscape is still the high‑end ground grade screws. That arena is not about short‑term speed, but about long‑term investment, process accumulation, and mass‑production stability.
For companies preparing to enter this industry, the most important judgment is not "is this market hot?" but "does our company have the capability to enter leading customers' validation systems and maintain stability in batch delivery?" Only those who truly secure the "ticket of mass‑production stability" will be qualified to sit at the same table and compete head‑to‑head with top Japanese and Korean brands.
Source: MIR Rui Industry
