garden tools

" China is one of the world’s major producers of garden tools and is well on its way to the top. Suppliers in China offer three basic types of garden 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 garden tool exports from China. Increasing demand from the United States and the European Union is driving more garden 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. There is, however, the possibility of product saturation as Chinas 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 markets 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."