The roaring of machinery is heard while approaching Shengxing's workshops. The workers are busy operating the machines to turn raw titanium materials into materials for making screws of Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 6.
Shengxing Co is like a shining spot in Qianxinan prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province . Qianxinan is a mountainous karst area.
Founded in 1999 with just $1.6 million in registered capital and covering 20,000 square meters, the company has a powerful research team, the members of which include an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The main business of the company is to produce titanium and titanium alloy products with its own technologies and experienced team.
In 2012, the company embarked on preparing titanium screws for Apple Inc. After furious competition with other companies from home and abroad, Shengxing became Apple's official screw material supplier.
From January 2013 to September 2014, more than 30 tons of titanium screw materials have been manufactured and provided by Shengxing.
"The raw material of titanium with 620mm in diameter is transformed to 1mm in diameter after dozens of procedures," said Xiao Guiyun, general manager of Shengxing Co.
Shengxing provides Apple manufacturing foundries with superior quality material, which makes the screw yield rate above 90 percent.
Although Shengxing is just a company from under-developed Guizhou province, it has gained tremendous technological experiences from titanium processing.
"We have acquired six patents for utility models and two patents for invention. Meanwhile we are applying for another patent, which will bring our patents to three," said Xiao.
Foxconn, Apple's manufacturing foundry, used to purchase screw materials from Japan because of its first class raw material processing capacity.
The situation changed in 2012. Apple purchases its screw materials from China, and titanium companies like Shengxing have finally defeated Japanese companies in this field.
According to Xiao, Guizhou has abundant raw titanium materials. Guizhou has the biggest titanium sponge manufacturing base.
Capital shortage is the major problem that Shengxing faces. The intensive processing of titanium, especially materials for nuclear work and spaceships, requires large amounts of capital .
Shengxing cooperates with other titanium manufacturers by providing its technologies to solve the capital shortage problem.
Other titanium products are becoming popular. The pipes specialized for nuclear power made of titanium, which used to be imported from abroad, have been produced and imported to Africa.
"Although titanium processing is extraordinarily complicated, Shengxing is confident it can do it well. We are looking forward to not only providing screw materials but screws for Apple," said Xiao.
