Eyewear industry of Danyang, Jiangsu expands into international market

A crystal-clear resin lens blank was secured by an automated robotic arm. Three nimble cutting heads danced around it, their blades flashing as water sprayed. In less than 40 seconds, a precisely customized eyeglass lens emerged, perfectly ground to specifications.

These 40 seconds represent the relentless efforts made by the optical lens industry of Danyang, east China's Jiangsu province in the past nearly 40 years.

The journey began with a few skilled lens grinders returning to their hometown and establishing a fledgling industry. It progressed from vending in front of a train station to building markets that reach the globe.

Today, Danyang has blossomed into the world's largest lens manufacturing hub. It boasts over 1,600 companies engaged in eyewear production and related supporting industries. The city produces more than 400 million pairs of lenses each year, or approximately 70 percent of China's total and about half of the global output.

A worker works in an optical lens factory in Danyang, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily Online/Fang Dongxu)

When a customer in Europe orders a pair of custom glasses from an optical shop, the order is transmitted to a lens supplier in Danyang. The supplier then immediately begins production, leveraging a complete industrial chain that integrates eyewear design, manufacturing, sales, and logistics. This entire process takes only a week. Currently, Danyang receives over 15 million custom lens orders annually from international clients.

In recent years, to support local businesses in expanding overseas markets, the government of Danyang has implemented a package of supportive policies, including promoting intelligent transformation and digital upgrade for eyewear companies, stabilizing employment, facilitating cross-border e-commerce, and assisting with export tax rebates.

In the first half of 2024, Danyang's eyewear enterprises reported exports of over 2.57 billion yuan (approximately $365.6 million), up 2.8 percent year on year.

The development of cross-border e-commerce has significantly broadened the overseas customer base for Danyang's eyewear companies. In 2021, an eyewear cross-border e-commerce industrial park was inaugurated in Danyang. Since then, an increasing number of local eyewear enterprises have been exploring cross-border e-commerce export models, gradually expanding the number of entities engaged in eyewear import and export trade. Today, the industrial park houses 68 companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce.

"Leveraging cross-border e-commerce platforms, we've achieved global direct sales of personalized eyewear," said Hu Hongmei, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Taojing Co., Ltd., which specializes in the manufacturing of optical lenses.

According to Hu, the company's total sales reached 650 million yuan in 2023, and in the first half of this year, the company's exports exceeded $49 million, an increase of 6.54 percent from a year ago.

A worker works in an optical lens factory in Danyang, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily Online/Fang Dongxu)

In recent years, eyewear companies in Danyang, striving to refine their products and make technological innovations, are launching over 3,000 new products each year, such as sunglasses whose shades can change into nine different colors, ultra-light frames that float on water, personalized glasses created using facial scanning technology, and multi-focal lenses that help protect eyesight for adolescents. Nearly 1,000 professional designers specializing in eyewear-related fields now work in the city.

Furthermore, Danyang has established a national eyewear product quality supervision and inspection center and an intellectual property right protection center. These institutions not only emphasize quality improvement but also prioritize the protection of innovations.

"Currently, we can offer overseas consumers customization options for over 5,000 types of frames and 50 types of lenses. This extensive range makes our products very competitive in the international market," Hu told People's Daily.

The company will keep increasing investment in the development of new products and collaborate with more cross-border e-commerce platforms, to further expand their presence in the global market, Hu added.