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Taiwan Rep / Notes

Taiwan's last census counted 5,994 screw, nut and rivet establishments. Three in five had fewer than five people.

Taiwan's fastener industry looks like a few big names from abroad. The government's last census counted 5,994 establishments in screw, nut and rivet making, of which 229 had 50 or more people and 3,544 had fewer than five. More than a fifth mainly process goods for other companies. Here's what the census shows, and why it matters for who actually makes your parts.

Updated October 13, 2026. Figures are from the 2021 Industry and Service Census, which counts establishments as of the end of 2021, read from the open data that day.

The short version

  • At the end of 2021, Taiwan had 5,994 establishments in screw, nut and rivet manufacturing with 63,815 people, about 11 per establishment on average.
  • 59% had fewer than five people and 78% fewer than ten. Only 229 had 50 or more, and 82 had 100 or more.
  • 1,292 mainly did processing for other companies, and 2,210 were sole proprietorships or partnerships rather than companies.
  • Heat treatment and surface treatment are separate industries in the census, and most of their establishments mainly process for customers.
  • The census doesn't show how establishments work together, but a bolt can pass through several of them. Ask your supplier which steps happen where, and by whom.

Ask buyers to picture a Taiwan bolt maker and many will picture a large plant in Kaohsiung with rows of headers and a heat-treatment line. Plants like that exist. But they are a small part of the industry by count. Taiwan's Industry and Service Census, which the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics runs every five years, counts every establishment, including the very small ones that public registries can miss. This note covers how big Taiwan's fastener establishments are, how they operate, where they are, how the census compares with our earlier factory count, and what it means when you ask who makes your parts.

How big they are

The census industry "screw, nut and rivet manufacturing" (code 2591) had 5,994 establishments at the end of 2021. By the number of people working there, including owners and unpaid family members:

People per establishmentEstablishmentsShare
Fewer than 53,54459.1%
5 to 91,11018.5%
10 to 1968211.4%
20 to 494297.2%
50 to 991472.5%
100 to 299691.2%
300 or more130.2%

The industry employed 63,815 people in all, so the average establishment had about 11. The median is far lower: more than half had fewer than five. Only 13 establishments had 300 or more people, and one had 1,000 or more.

Percentages are rounded and may not add to exactly 100%. By opening date, 4,010 of the establishments counted at the end of 2021 (66.9%) had opened between 1981 and 2010, and 898 between 2016 and 2021. That describes the ones still operating in 2021, not when the industry grew.

How they operate

Size is one half of the picture. The census also classifies each establishment by type and, for independent units, by how it mainly operates:

Main mode of operationEstablishments
Independent unit: manufacturing4,300
Independent unit: processing for customers (代客加工)1,292
Independent unit: outsourced production (委外生產)103
Head office of a multi-site company130
Branch unit169

So 1,292 establishments, 22% of the total (23% of the 5,695 independent units), are counted in the fastener industry but mainly process goods for customers. Another 103 mainly have their production done by others. These are main modes, not every activity an establishment does.

The steps around forming and threading sit in other census industries. Metal heat treatment had 630 establishments, of which 445 (70.6%) mainly processed for customers. Metal surface treatment, which includes plating, had 4,618, of which 3,596 (77.9%) did. These serve every kind of metal product, so the figures don't say how many work on bolts or how much of the work is outsourced. They do show that most establishments in those two industries are set up to work for customers.

Legal form is another split. Of the 5,994 fastener establishments, the census classed 3,784 as companies and 2,210 as sole proprietorships or partnerships. Those two forms aren't companies under the Company Act. Under the Business Registration Act they generally register as a business (商業) with the city or county government (Articles 3 and 4, with small-scale exemptions in Article 5), so instead of the company record our registry note walks through, look for a business registration. Factory registration is a separate question for either form.

Where they are, and how this compares with our factory count

By city and county, the census puts New Taipei (1,387 establishments) and Kaohsiung (1,364) level, ahead of Changhua (957), Taichung (916), Tainan (635) and Taoyuan (374).

That may look at odds with our factory count, which found that 37% of registered plants in production with fastener words in their names were in Kaohsiung, on the list labeled August 2026. Kaohsiung's share in the 2021 census is 23%. The two counts differ in date, unit and method. The factory count used the register of plants in production, which a workplace below both registration thresholds (in general, 150 square meters of plant floor and 75 kW of motors and electric heat) doesn't have to join, and it kept only plants whose names contain words like screw or bolt. The census counts every establishment classified to the industry, whatever its name or size. One possible explanation is that more of the north's establishments are small or don't use fastener words in their names, but the census tables we used don't cross size with county, so the data can't settle it.

What this means for who makes your parts

Back to the large plant in the picture. Only 229 establishments (3.8%) had 50 or more people. A Taiwan bolt can pass through more than one establishment: the company you buy from, possibly a contract processor doing forming or secondary operations, a heat treater and a plater. The Section 232 note sketched the same chain from the paperwork side. Here's what's known and what isn't. Known: most establishments in the industry are very small, a fifth mainly process for customers, and most heat treatment and surface treatment establishments mainly work for customers. Inferred: a supplier quoting you may be any of these, from a large integrated maker to a company that coordinates several shops. Unknown: how your own supplier's chain is arranged. The census doesn't link establishments to one another.

None of this is a sign of trouble. Small specialist shops are how many industries work. It does change the questions worth asking a new supplier:

Those answers matter for more than quality. Where they apply, Section 232 melt-and-pour evidence, CBAM actual-emissions data and the records behind a Fastener Quality Act claim may need information from upstream producers and subcontractors.

So the 5,994 establishments aren't 5,994 places that each make a finished bolt from start to finish. 229 had 50 or more people, and more than 1,200 mainly process for customers. When you ask who makes your parts, be ready for the answer to be a list.

Want the whole chain mapped?

We visit your Taiwan supplier and the shops it uses for forming, heat treatment and plating, check each one in the registries, and follow your lot numbers from step to step. You get an English map of who does what, with photos and any gaps in the records.

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The census counts establishments (individual places of business) classified by their main activity at the end of 2021. A plant making fasteners as a sideline to another main activity is counted in that other industry. The next census, for 2026, hadn't been published when we checked. This is a practical guide for buyers, not legal advice.

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