Is your product made in Australia?

Unfortunately manufacturing high volume low cost fasteners in Australia started to become unviable in the late 70's and early 80's after the government shifted to free trade agreements and product was landing into Australia from Asia at a fraction of the price of what local manufacturers like Ajax Fasteners, Cold Forge, Hobson Engineering and GKN Nettlefolds could make it for. In the early days the quality wasn't as good and there was resistance, momentum was slow but as the product quality improved, so did the volume and now over 95% of the Australia market is supplied out of Asia. Whilst initially cost was a big factor, there were other factors like stock availability and range. The final straw for Australian manufacturers was when the car industry closed for good.

There are still a handful of boutique manufacturers who have survived by specialising in one off specials or small volume stock required urgently (2-3 weeks whereas importing stock can be 3-4 months)

Today the fasteners industry is dominated by Australian companies like Hobson Engineering (they adapted and started to import when they saw the writing on the wall), Bremick Fasteners, Brighton Best, Tower Fasteners, Hitech Fasteners and Sheffield Blade. All these companies source most of their product from Asian suppliers. 

Should I be concerned if the product is made overseas?
The quick answer is NO, the suppliers we support have all been in the industry for a long time and have built strong relationships with Asian factories and product have to pass testing before being sold in Australia.

Do you import your own Bolts and Nuts from Asia?
Apart from a few sizes of bolts not available here, WE DON'T, we leave the importing to the wholesalers who are good at it with systems in place for quality and batch control while as a distributor, we concentrate on stocking and shipping product to our customers with the knowledge it has passed quality control and is made to the relevant standard.