How did Weihai become the mecca of China’s fishing tackle industry?

Weihai City (威海市), a port city in eastern Shandong Province, China, has over 4,000 fishing gear manufacturing and related trading companies, and according to a report by Alibaba, Weihai City’s fishing gear exports in 2018 exceeded 1.92 trillion won at the current exchange rate.

For the city to become the center of the fishing gear industry as it is today, there were external factors, but it can also be said that the firm will of one company representative served as the foundation.

As I’ve discussed on my blog several times, our country’s fishing gear industry once played a significant role in earning foreign currency thanks to the country’s export-driven policy.

However, as labor costs rose following the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics, global fishing gear companies looking for cheaper labor than domestic companies turned their eyes to China. One day, a Japanese company visited a company in Weihai City, where there were many factories producing plastic products at the time, and asked if they could make fishing rods made of fiberglass.

A Japanese company, believing that a company with accumulated light industry technology could produce a product with just a little technical guidance, succeeded in producing a prototype, albeit somewhat imperfect, after a year of effort with a Chinese plastic product manufacturer.

And the Chinese company that made the prototype established a company specializing in producing fishing rods, which is now Shandong Huanqiu Fishing Gear Co., Ltd.

The company currently employs 2,000 people and has an annual production capacity of 15 million fishing rods, with exports exceeding 180 billion won in 2021.

The fishing gear industry in Weihai, which started with the production of fishing rods made of fiberglass, was completely established as a mecca for fishing gear thanks to the fishing rod factory established in 1988 by a man named Chen Guangwei. The company established by Chen Guangwei is  the very company introduced in the article titled, “China’s fishing gear company with the world’s 4th largest sales.”

If you Google Chen Guangwei (陈光威), a lot of information comes up. As you can see from the descriptions of him as a pioneer in carbon fiber in China and the founder of the fishing gear industry, the influence he had on the fishing gear industry not only in China but also around the world is enormous.

Although he is now deceased, I think the words he said while he was alive,  “The power of a brand comes from quality, and that power is the key to winning the competition,” are worth taking to heart for domestic fishing gear companies.

Chen Guangwei (陈光威: Chen Guangwei) during his lifetime

The production of carbon fishing rods, which President Jin Gwang-wi had turned his attention to, faced difficulties because at the time, it was difficult to import carbon fiber, the raw material, to China due to concerns that it would be diverted for military use, and even if it was imported, it was very difficult to report the intended use and amount of use in detail.

However, instead of giving up, President Jin Guangwei decided to produce prepreg directly, introducing production facilities in 1998 and starting to produce raw materials directly. His decision, which may have been reckless, was able to bear fruit largely due to joint research with the ‘863 Expert Group’ created when the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology launched a carbon fiber development project with a budget of approximately 36 billion won in 2001.

As a result, in 2004, the company developed a product comparable to Japan’s T300 class, and has now become a leading company in China’s carbon fiber industry, producing materials for fighter jets as well as fishing rods.

As companies that could easily obtain carbon prepreg, the raw material for fishing rods, were located in the city, related companies naturally began to gather one by one, and as a result, it has now become the world’s largest fishing gear production base.

I conclude this article by promising to introduce the story of the late Chen Guangwei (陈光威) of the Guangwei Group in several more installments.