In recent three years, shoemaking machinery in China has maintained higher than 20% annual growth rate in sales, and exceeded 30% growth rate in sales last year. As China is the world's shoe factory, shoemaking machinery manufacturers in China have already completed both technical advancement and investment accumulation. In the future, they will design and manufacture new machines, promote new product development capacity, create Chinese shoemaking machinery brands and shoemaking machines with Chinese characteristics in response to process improvement in shoemaking factories.

In 2003, based on customs statistics, China imported USD 30,000,000 worth of shoemaking equipment, mainly from Taiwan, Italy and South Korea, dropping by 33% as compared with 2002. Imported equipment accounts for no more than 5% in market share in Mainland China. On the other hand, sales of China-made shoemaking machinery has maintained higher than 20% annual growth rate in recent three years.

Shoemaking machinery manufacture in China got started in the 1980s. Through extensive efforts in the past two decades, China now has more than 300 leading shoemaking machinery manufacturers, mainly located in Wenzhou, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Shandong, of which, such regions as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian account for 90% in number of enterprises and higher than 90% in sales amount. These enterprises can manufacture a full range of shoemaking machines ranging from shoe design, upper shoe making equipment, molding equipment, sole mounting equipment and finishing equipment to laboratory equipment, and can ensure quality consistency. Economic integration creates new opportunities for the shoemaking machinery industry. Shoemaking machinery manufacturers in China have won favorable opportunities to regain their high-speed growth rate.

Wenzhou: Maintain Chinese style to step out of China

Known as "China's Shoe Market", Wenzhou attracted extensive capital investment into shoemaking in the 1990s, and constructed and expanded many shoemaking factories which, in turn, needed large quantities of shoemaking machines and relevant services. Based on this, early shoemaking machinery manufacturers in Wenzhou made extensive input to perform extensive research on Italian and Taiwan equipment used by Chinese shoemaking enterprises and developed a series of shoemaking equipment that better suit Chinese shoemaking process and Chinese characteristics. Currently, Wenzhou has more than 100 shoemaking machinery manufacturers with products covering every aspect of the shoemaking process and these enterprises can manufacture complete plant. Their products approach or even outperform Taiwan shoemaking machines in technical contents and technical level, and have adopted the design, process and production conception of Italian shoemaking machines. Typical shoemaking machinery manufacturing enterprises in Wenzhou include Wenzhou Dalong Machinery Co., Ltd., Wenzhou Oujiang Hydraulic Machinery Co., Ltd., Wenzhou Dashun Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd., Wenzhou Cangqiao Light Industry Equipment Manufacture Co., Ltd. and Wenzhou Yongyu Machinery Co., Ltd.

Guangdong: The world's customer material processing base

Guangdong is another key shoemaking region in China and also an important region processing materials from various countries and regions around the world to produce leather products and shoe products in particular. A lot of shoemaking machinery manufacturers are located in such regions as Dongguan and Shenzhen. Key shoemaking machinery manufacturers in Guangdong include Dongguan Qifeng Shoemaking Machinery Co., Ltd., Jiuzhou Shoemaking Co., Ltd. and Nanhai Yongzheng Shoemaking Manufactory.

Jinjiang: Ideal place for shoemaking machinery development

As the largest sports shoe, tourist shoe and leisure shoe production region in China, Jinjiang in Fujian now has more than 3000 shoemaking enterprises with annual output approaching 500 million pairs. In recent years, Jinjiang imported more than 2000 shoemaking lines and invested RMB 800 million in technical reformation per year on average, making Jinjiang an ideal place for shoemaking machinery development. Rapid growth of Zhongtai Shoemaking Machinery Co., Ltd., Jinjiang Bada Garment Equipment Manufactory and Kaijia Machinery Co., Ltd. embodies the robust capacity of shoemaking machinery in Fujian.