Global Partners: China

It’s impossible to discuss optics fabrication today without mentioning China, because most of the world’s optics are now made there. Although China’s optics industry started in the 1950’s, things really took off in the 1980’s, when the Taiwanese and Japanese started the trend of moving production to China in an effort to lower production costs. New factories sprang up and a whole new population of optics workers was trained. The quality, consistency, delivery and customer support from Chinese factories have all continuously improved over the last 20 years. Most of the optical parts found in US optics catalogs are made in China. China is becoming increasingly vertically integrated, producing its own, high-quality light-transmitting materials, although the more sophisticated production & test equipment is still imported from the West.

Many of China’s best and most competitive optics factories have been set up in rural areas, where regional governments offer economic incentives and where there is plentiful low-wage labor. Key personnel at these rural factories seldom speak English and, consequently, response to inquiries coming from outside China is poor. At many of these factories, production is completely tied up producing OEM optics for the major catalog companies. Balboa Scientific’s special relationships allow direct access to these types of factories, which are ideal for volume production ranging from hundreds to thousands of pieces per order.