2026 Bearing Industry Witnesses Structural Upgrade: Diverse Product Matrix Empowers High-End Manufacturing
2026,01,23
Since 2026, driven by the global wave of high-end and green transformation in the manufacturing industry, China's bearing industry has been undergoing profound structural changes. The continuous deepening of the national "dual carbon" strategy and the industrial foundation reconstruction project has brought unprecedented development opportunities for core product categories such as stainless steel bearings and deep groove ball bearings. Industry enterprises are accelerating technological innovation and product iteration, meeting the differentiated needs of the downstream market with a diversified product matrix, and promoting the transformation of domestic bearings from "scale expansion" to "value leapfrog".
As a core category in the bearing industry, Ball bearing has always dominated the global bearing market with its core advantages of low friction and high speed, and is widely used in automobiles, home appliances, precision manufacturing and other fields. Among them, Deep groove ball bearing has become the most widely used type of ball bearing due to its characteristic of being able to bear combined radial and axial loads. Data shows that the market size of China's deep groove ball bearings exceeded 18 billion yuan in 2025, and it is expected to maintain a growth rate of more than 12% in 2026, with its application proportion in high-end fields such as electric vehicle drive systems and semiconductor lithography machines continuously increasing. For example, in the field of new energy vehicles, optimally designed deep groove ball bearings can reduce the energy consumption of drive motors by 0.09%, providing key support for improving vehicle battery life.
Against the backdrop of the growing demand for corrosion-resistant and clean working conditions, stainless steel bearing has ushered in a market explosion period. Benefiting from technological breakthroughs in high-purity stainless steel materials and the promotion of green manufacturing policies, the penetration rate of stainless steel bearings in food machinery, marine engineering, environmental protection equipment and other fields has increased rapidly. In 2024, China's exports of stainless steel bearings to ASEAN increased by 34.7% year-on-year, among which products that meet NSF food-grade certification became the main export force. At the same time, with the downstream industry's pursuit of miniaturization and precision of equipment, the Small bearing market continues to expand. The application demand for small stainless steel bearings with a diameter of less than 10mm in medical equipment, micro motors and other fields increases by more than 20% annually, and their high precision and low noise characteristics have become core competitiveness.
The personalized customization demand of industrial equipment has spawned the rapid development of the non-standard bearing market. Traditional standardized bearings can no longer meet the usage needs under special working conditions. Enterprises provide customers with exclusive bearing solutions through customized design and special process research and development. For example, in the field of mining machinery, customized non-standard deep groove ball bearings have their wear resistance increased by 5 times through TiAlN coating treatment on the outer ring; in the field of high-end equipment, non-standard small bearings can achieve 0.01mm-level repeat positioning accuracy, ensuring stable operation of equipment. Industry experts said that the market size of non-standard bearings will exceed 5 billion yuan in 2026, and customized service capabilities will become one of the core competitiveness of enterprises.
As a core component of industrial fluid transportation systems, the performance of Water pump bearing directly determines the energy efficiency and service life of water pump equipment. Under the constraint of the "dual carbon" goal, high-efficiency and energy-saving water pump bearings have become the mainstream of the market, and their carbon emission intensity per unit product has been controlled within 0.92kg CO₂/set. In 2025, the localization rate of China's water pump bearings reached 82%, and its supporting capabilities in water conservancy infrastructure, HVAC, seawater desalination and other fields have been significantly improved. By adopting technologies such as bio-based grease and multi-stage composite sealing, the service life of domestic water pump bearings has been increased from 30,000 hours to more than 50,000 hours, meeting the mandatory energy efficiency standard GB 19762-2024, and reaching the international advanced level in terms of corrosion resistance and vibration resistance.
Looking forward to 2026, the bearing industry will continue to benefit from three major dividends: domestic substitution, green transformation and high-end manufacturing upgrading. Industry enterprises have increased R&D investment one after another, focusing on material innovation, digital production and international compliance certification, and promoting the development of core products such as stainless steel bearings and deep groove ball bearings towards high precision, long service life and low carbonization. At the same time, with the deepening implementation of regional trade agreements such as RCEP, Chinese bearing enterprises will further expand overseas markets, occupy a more important position in the global bearing industry pattern, and provide core support for the high-quality development of global manufacturing.
