Our Story
In 1987 a small workshop in Nantong started making wire rope by hand. No machines. Rope laid by people, one length at a time, sold locally.
That workshop is now Jiangsu Tongjiang New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., which supplies rope to three of China's largest crane manufacturers and exports to four continents. What follows is how it got from one to the other, which took about forty years and a lot of equipment.
Milestones
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Tongjiang Wire Rope Factory founded. Rope made by hand |
| 1992 | First mechanised production equipment installed |
| 1996 | Tonggong trademark registered |
| 2003 | Compacted-strand rope developed |
| 2004 | First in China to mass-produce face-contact wire rope |
| 2006 | 6- and 8-strand rope displaces imports in construction machinery |
| 2008 | Over 50% of the domestic piling market |
| 2012 | Euro-standard multi-layer-strand rope developed |
| 2017 | Renamed Tongjiang New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. |
| 2020 | Recognised as a Jiangsu Province High-Tech Enterprise |
| 2022 | Begins supplying Sany, Zoomlion and XCMG |
1987 to 1991: made by hand
Tongjiang Wire Rope Factory opened in 1987 as a private workshop. Everything was made by hand, which capped output at whatever the people on the floor could physically produce.
It was a slow way to learn the trade, but it was a thorough one. The understanding of how a rope behaves when you build it wrong is easier to acquire when you are building it yourself.
1992 to 2002: machines arrive
The factory mechanised in 1992. Output rose, consistency rose more.
In 1996 the company registered the Tonggong trademark, which meant that for the first time rope leaving the factory carried its own name instead of somebody else's.
2003 to 2012: replacing imports
This is the decade that matters.
Tongjiang developed compacted-strand rope in 2003. The following year it became the first Chinese manufacturer to mass-produce face-contact wire rope, a construction that until then Chinese buyers had to import.
By 2006 the company's 6- and 8-strand rope was displacing imported product in construction machinery. By 2008 it held more than half the domestic piling market. In 2012 it developed Euro-standard multi-layer-strand rope and took another category off the import list.
Four decades of manufacturing history come down to one line: things that used to be bought from Europe started being made in Nantong.
2017 onward: a new name
The company was renamed Tongjiang New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. in 2017, reflecting a move toward specialty and high-end rope rather than volume.
Jiangsu Province recognised it as a High-Tech Enterprise in 2020. In 2022 it began supplying rope directly to Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion and XCMG. Those relationships are ongoing.
