A recent report by Zeefer has put the total value of China's bearings, gear, and related equipment manufacturing at more than USD $5 billion, in Zhejiang province alone.

The key eastern manufacturing centers for China's bearing industry are Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces, together accounting for nearly a quarter of all bearings produced in China.

More than 800 bearing and power transmission component manufacturers are located in Zhejiang, with Jiangsu and Shandong not far behind.

All six provinces in east coastal China are strong manufacturing centers for bearings and power transmission products -- Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian. As is the eastern coastal province of Shandong. Bordering, Hebei is another key manufacturing center, and home to more than 100 million people.

Further north, however, Lianong province is, according to government directive, designed to be the epicenter of China's bearing manufacturing. In particular, the coastline Wafangdian region, better known as "China's Bearing Capital." More than half the people living in the Wafangdian area work in the bearing industry.

It is also a very carefully crafted plan. For example, Wafangdian is large, and has a major infrastructure for equipment, machinery, mining, agriculture, and heavy industry. Essentially, it is an entire city planned and built to support manufacturing, with separate city areas defined for shipping and logistics, manufacturing, supporting vendors, suppliers, residences, shops, and so on.

Industry there is anchored by Wafangdian Bearing Factory, the country's largest bearing manufacturing plant, built by Japan during World War II. Several other large manufacturers are in the area, and many smaller, specialty manufacturers.

Well beyond Wafangdian, however, there has been an effort by central planners to herd bearing manufacturing into specific geographic areas, so they will build and share expertise. Unlike a competitive economy, China's manufacturers are encouraged to collaborate for their overall gain, rather than benefiting just one company.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang are reportedly instructed to focus their efforts on building infrastructures for precision bearings; Jiangsu specifically for small and needle roller bearings. Zhejiang is for bearing manufacturing equipment, forgings, and tooling; bearing companies in Shandong are to focus on mounted bearings, pillow blocks and flange units.

Encouraging manufacturing clusters, and the resulting synergies, are part of the central government's planning hopes, but execution by the provinces has been haphazard.

Going forward, the increasingly rapid growth of privately held manufacturing is being encouraged, while at the same time, it is a challenge for central planners to tie it all in with official, organized and well-rehearsed and tightly planned economic, organizational, and public policy initiatives.