Did You Know? Most of Taiwan’s Screws Come From One Kaohsiung District

Pick up almost anything with a bolt in it, like a bike, a car seat or a flat-pack bookshelf, and there’s a decent chance one of those little steel parts came from one district in Kaohsiung. Gangshan (岡山), together with neighboring Lujhu (路竹), is the heart of the Taiwan screw industry (“fasteners” in trade-speak). Locals have a cheeky nickname for it: 「螺絲窟」, roughly “the Screw Den.”

How big is it, really?

Taiwan is one of the world’s biggest fastener exporters, and most of that flows out of this corner of southern Taiwan. The exact share depends on who’s counting and how. Kaohsiung City Government puts it at about 70% of Taiwan’s fasteners made in Gangshan and Lujhu. A 2026 Global Views city report measured by value and found Kaohsiung produces roughly one of every two NT dollars of the country’s fastener output. Either way, it’s an astonishing amount of hardware for a district best known to travelers for goat-meat stew and broad-bean chili paste.

A lot of it ships across the Pacific. In the first eight months of 2025, the United States took about 45% of Taiwan’s fastener exports by weight, according to industry magazine Fastener World, which works from Taiwan’s customs data.

It all started with three brothers in 1949

In 1949, three brothers from rural Tianliao, Li Lieyun, Li Chunyu (李春雨) and Li Chuntang, opened a small workshop at their home in Gangshan’s Jiafeng Village. It became Chun Yu (春雨), Taiwan’s first screw factory, and Li Chunyu is still honored as 「台灣螺絲之父」, the Father of Taiwan’s Screws.

The clever part was what came next. Li encouraged employees to go off and start their own shops, then passed orders between them so everyone specialized and shared the work. Those spin-offs spun off again. Local reporting says at least 70% of Taiwan’s screw-company bosses are 「春雨人」, “Chun Yu people”, alumni of that first factory. That’s how one family workshop turned into a whole industrial cluster.

Why it stuck in Kaohsiung

• Steel next door: China Steel’s mill is in Kaohsiung, so wire rod (the raw material for screws) doesn’t have far to travel.
• A port on the doorstep: Kaohsiung Harbor gets the finished parts onto ships fast.
• Everything within a short drive: heat treaters, platers, toolmakers and freight forwarders all sit in the same few districts, so a part can move from step to step quickly.

The Screw Den has also moved upmarket. Today’s Gangshan factories make high-spec parts for cars, aircraft, medical devices and chip-making equipment, not just bulk hardware-store screws.

The takeaway

“Made in Taiwan” isn’t only chips and boba. Some of the island’s most important exports are tiny, quiet and everywhere, and a lot of them come from one unglamorous corner of Kaohsiung. If you’re exploring the south, our Kaohsiung city guide covers the districts, and our sugar railway post has another of Taiwan’s still-working heritage industries. 🔩

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