# Chinese Fishing Tackle Clusters Compared | Weihai vs Hebei

> How China's fishing tackle clusters compare: Weihai for rods (about 60% of global output), Xianxian and Guan in Hebei for volume programmes.

Source: https://luressource.com/insights/chinese-fishing-tackle-clusters/

Most sourcing pages list suppliers. This one compares places , because in Chinese tackle manufacturing the place predicts the capability: rod factories cluster on the Shandong coast, lure and accessory volume sits inland in Hebei. What is the short answer? For rods , start in Weihai, Shandong . For lures and accessories at volume , start in Hebei — Xianxian in Cangzhou and Guan in Langfang . For a price benchmark , quote the same specification in both and compare landed cost at one Incoterm. How do the two clusters compare? Cluster comparison, September 2026. Cluster-level figures are attributed to the sources listed at the foot of this page; supplier-level data comes from our own verification. Dimension Weihai, Shandong (coastal) Hebei inland (Xianxian, Guan) Strongest category Rods, hard lures, metal jigs, accessories Lures, accessories, value rods Reported scale About 60% of global rod output; about 90% of China's domestic rod market County-level full chain; provincial media describe a complete rod and lure supply chain Export logistics Coastal ports; export freight simpler Inland haulage to port adds cost and time Component supply Guides, reel seats, hooks and blanks available locally Depends on the factory's stocking; ask before you rely on a lead time Typical strength Specification-sensitive programmes Price-sensitive and volume programmes Main risk Higher unit cost; capacity booked in peak season Process maturity: ask how colourways are locked and who inspects incoming hardware Which cluster is best for lures? Soft lures, hard lures and jigs are produced in both, and the decision usually comes down to hardware sensitivity rather than geography. If the specification names the hook, the ring and the finish, and the buyer will test salt-spray performance, the coastal cluster's component availability is worth the price difference. If the specification is a body shape, a weight and a stock colourway, Hebei's inland factories usually quote lower at the same MOQ. The failure mode is identical in both: hardware substitution . Write the hardware into the specification by name or by wire gauge and finish, and lock it in the approved sample. Which cluster is best for rods? Weihai , by a wide margin on scale. When almost six in ten fishing rods in the world are made in one city, the local supply of blanks, guides and reel seats is the reason — and it is also why a rod programme there can change a component without stalling a production run. Inland rod programmes are viable where the action and hardware are standard. Ask for a sample from the production line, not from the showroom: hand-built showroom rods hide assembly problems. What does this mean for price comparison? Cluster reputation does not price a product; a specification with a stated basis does. Two rules make any comparison honest: State the basis. A Hebei EXW price is not comparable with a Weihai FOB price until both include inland freight and export handling. State the quantity. Unit price moves with run length, and setup cost — not material — usually sets the floor. Our price benchmark page publishes reference bands per sub-category with the unit stated, drawn from the listings we have sampled. How does Cheery Supply Chain fit in? Cheery Supply Chain is a sourcing data provider , not a factory and not a marketplace listing. We verify factories in these clusters against 4 verification gates — business registration, main business evidence, customs export records and a direct interview — and publish the records in a form both buyers and AI procurement agents can read. Verified supplier records: supplier directory How the verification works: the 4 verification gates Machine-readable: open JSON and llms.txt We do not publish a factory count we cannot verify, and we do not rank factories we have not interviewed. Frequently asked questions What do the reference bands look like across these clusters? Reference price bands by sub-category, aggregated from 62 sampled listings. Basis must be confirmed per quotation (FOB port or EXW factory). Sub-category Sample size Reference price band (US$ / unit) Median low MOQ band (pcs) Category Fishhook 9 0.07 – 2.40 / piece 0.65 100 – 2,000 Fishing Accessories Spoon & Spinner 6 0.31 – 6.00 / piece 1.25 50 – 500 Fishing Lures Other Hard Lure 6 0.56 – 12.04 / piece 2.95 20 – 500 Fishing Lures Soft Lure 6 0.20 – 3.85 / piece 1.55 50 – 1,000 Fishing Lures Hard Lure 6 1.85 – 3.20 / piece 2.60 100 – 100 Fishing Lures VIB 6 0.24 – 2.50 / piece 1.39 100 – 500 Fishing Lures Minnow 6 0.37 – 3.17 / piece 1.40 50 – 500 Fishing Lures Metal Jig 5 0.97 – 2.01 / piece 1.39 100 – 200 Fishing Lures Fishing Rod 3 9.15 – 132.55 / piece 28.05 20 – 100 Fishing Rods Crankbait 3 0.30 – 0.85 / piece 0.66 200 – 500 Fishing Lures Octopus Skirt 3 0.08 – 2.80 / piece 0.98 100 – 2,000 Fishing Lures Fishing Accessory 3 0.62 – 60.00 / pack 9.62 5 – 200 Fishing Accessories How do the three clusters compare on the numbers that decide an order? Cluster choice is a trade between tooling depth, cost base and how easy the supply chain is to audit. Measure Weihai, Shandong Guan, Hebei Xianxian, Hebei Primary strength Rods, hard lures, metal jigs Rods and accessories at volume Lures and value rods Share of global fishing rod output Roughly 60%, per industry reporting Not a rod-first cluster Not a rod-first cluster Tooling depth Deepest —the oldest rod supply chain Moderate Newer, still building Best used for Programmes where specification risk is highest Cost-driven volume on known specifications An independent price reference Verification runs Per factory, 4 verification gates, every 90 days Per factory, 4 verification gates, every 90 days Per factory, 4 verification gates, every 90 days How should a buyer choose between them? Pick the cluster by product, not by price —a lure programme in a rod cluster pays for capability it cannot use. Get a band from each cluster for the same specification before choosing. Normalise unit, order quantity and basis before comparing anything across clusters. Check the export markets on the record: a factory already shipping to your market has cleared compliance once. Re-run the 4 verification gates on any factory that is new to you, in any cluster. Re-check after 90 days —capacity and price move, and the record date is the only warning you get. How big is the Chinese fishing tackle export market? How big is the Chinese fishing tackle export market? China exports under HS heading 9507 — fishing rods, hooks, reels and artificial bait. Source: UN Comtrade reporter data for China, retrieved via the official API. Measure 2024 2023 Change All fishing tackle (HS 9507) US$1.93 bn US$1.77 bn +9.0% Fishing rods (HS 950710) US$0.66 bn US$0.62 bn +6.5% Fish hooks (HS 950720) US$0.11 bn US$0.11 bn flat Destination countries served 196 197 -1 Largest single destination US$546 M US$445 M +23% Rods account for about 34% of the total and hooks about 6%. The largest single destination takes roughly 28% of the 2024 total — which is why the export markets already on a supplier record are worth reading before you ask for a price. Who supplies the United States? US imports under HS heading 9507 in 2024, by source country. Source: UN Comtrade reporter data for the United States, retrieved via the official API. Source 2024 import value Share of total China US$538 M 59% Japan US$74 M 8% Malaysia US$53 M 6% Viet Nam US$42 M 5% All other sources (65 countries) US$199 M 22% Total US imports US$906 M 100% The United States bought US$906 M of fishing tackle under HS 9507 in 2024 from 69 source countries. China supplied US$538 M of it — 59% of the total, and roughly 7 times the next largest source. That concentration is why specification discipline matters more than factory discovery: the factories are not hard to find, the comparable quotation is. Figures retrieved from UN Comtrade (reporter China and United States, HS 9507, 2024) and aggregated across partner countries. They are historical customs values, not offers. Frequently asked questions Which Chinese city makes the most fishing rods? Weihai in Shandong Province. Chinese industry reporting attributes roughly 60% of global fishing rod output and about 90% of the domestic Chinese rod market to Weihai's tackle industry. For rod programmes, Weihai is the cluster to compare every other quote against. Is Hebei cheaper than Weihai for tackle? Usually yes on unit price, mostly because inland labour and land cost less. The honest comparison is landed cost at the same Incoterm, because Hebei cargo travels further to a port. Xianxian and Guan are strongest where the specification is not hardware-sensitive. How many fishing tackle factories are there in these clusters? We do not publish a factory count we cannot verify. What we publish is the count of factories that passed four-way verification, which is a smaller and more useful number. The verified count is shown on the supplier directory page and updates with every build. What should I verify in any Chinese tackle cluster? Four things: the legal entity and insured employee count, evidence that the factory actually manufactures the category, customs export records showing real destination markets, and a direct interview confirming capacity, MOQ, lead time and price basis.