China's Bearing Suppliers: The Silent Parts Inside Every Humanoid Joint

A humanoid robot is, mechanically speaking, a chain of rotating and sliding joints — and every one of them rides on a bearing. Crossed roller bearings carry the hip and shoulder, thin-wall bearings spin the motor shafts, flexspline bearings flex millions of times inside harmonic drives. Industry estimates put about 72 precision bearings per humanoid at an average unit price near RMB 7,350, a cost base that grows with every sold robot. For decades the high end belonged to SKF, Schaeffler, NSK, THK and IKO. China is now turning the robot joint bearing into a domestic business.

Why bearings are a humanoid bottleneck

Bearings set the ceiling on a joint's precision, rigidity and life. A humanoid's hip needs a crossed roller bearing that carries axial, radial and moment loads simultaneously in a thin envelope; its harmonic drives need flexspline bearings with walls of only 2-5mm that must survive cyclic deformation of 5-8% of diameter at thousands of rpm — historically a near-monopoly of Japanese harmonic makers. Get the bearing wrong and the joint wears, heats and loses accuracy. That is why bearings, though invisible, are a top-tier procurement priority — and why Chinese OEMs pushed domestic suppliers hard during the 2024-2026 humanoid ramp.

The West's lead — and China's under-15%

Global high-end bearing value remains dominated by Western and Japanese majors. Swedish SKF has gone as far as forming a joint venture with China's harmonic leader Leaderdrive (绿的谐波) for high-precision transmission components for humanoid joints. Germany's Schaeffler targets a 10%+ share of the humanoid market by 2030 and in August 2026 unveiled a formed strain-wave gearbox that cuts manufacturing cost by over 25% and material use by more than 75%. Chinese bearing makers collectively hold under 15% of global high-end value — but in the robot niche, the balance is already tipping.

The Chinese lineup

Luoyang Hongyuan — the joint-bearing king

Luoyang Hongyuan Bearing (洛阳鸿元, HONB), founded in 2005 in Luoyang, Henan, set out to replace imported high-precision bearings and now supplies roughly 90% of the joint bearings inside domestic Chinese humanoids — Unitree's spring-tumble robots, AgiBot's A2, Zhongqing's humanoids and UBTECH's Walker series all rely on its crossed roller and turntable bearings. Hongyuan makes 12 bearing series at P2/P4/P5 precision across φ20-2500mm, and invested heavily in robot-specific R&D before the boom — a bet that made it the default supplier when China's humanoid wave arrived.

Wuzhou Xinchun — the Tesla entrant

Bearing-and-screw group Wuzhou Xinchun (五洲新春, 603667) built a full robot bearing range — flexspline thin-wall, four-point-contact, angular-contact, needle, tapered and crossed roller types — and, after acquiring a former FAG robot bearing line in Germany, pushed its harmonic-reducer crossed roller bearings into Tesla's Optimus supply chain in 2025, with roughly 126,000 units shipped that year (per industry reports, about 18% of its global humanoid bearing purchases). Its vertical integration — rolling elements + roller screws + reducer bearings — makes it one of the few one-stop robot bearing suppliers.

The heavyweights and the specialists

LYC (洛阳轴承集团) supplies the crossed roller bearings for UBTECH's hip joints and brings national-level R&D from C919/C929 aero-engine bearings to robotics; it listed on ChiNext in August 2026. C&U (人本) dominates miniature and thin-wall bearings at consumer scale. ZWZ (瓦房店) jointly developed impact-resistant four-point-contact bearings with Fourier and won the full-lifecycle supply right for the GR-1 (2025-2028). XQY (新强联) crosses over from wind-turbine bearings, Guangyang (光洋股份) began batch delivery of crossed roller and flexspline bearings to leading humanoid OEMs, and Longxi (龙溪股份) owns the self-lubricating bearing niche — a deep bench forming fast.

Why China is winning the robot bearing race

Three structural advantages explain the surge. First, the Luoyang cluster: Hongyuan, LYC, XQY and dozens of specialists sit in one city with shared grinding, heat-treatment and testing infrastructure. Second, reducer co-localization: as Leaderdrive, Zhongda Leader and other Chinese reducer makers scaled, their bearing demand pulled domestic suppliers into the loop — and now the reducers and their bearings are made in the same country, often the same city. Third, attractive economics: humanoid-grade bearings carry gross margins of 28-50%, enough to fund the precision-investment loop that was once the West's moat.

What to watch

• Flexspline bearing localization — the last harmonic-drive bottleneck; Wuzhou Xinchun and Guangyang are the ones to track.
• SKF-Leaderdrive JV — the West is co-opting Chinese supply chains rather than fighting them.
• Self-lubricating bearings — Longxi's niche for maintenance-free joints at scale.

Frequently asked questions

How many bearings does a humanoid robot use?

Industry estimates put about 72 precision bearings per humanoid at an average unit price near RMB 7,350 — spanning crossed roller, thin-wall, flexspline and four-point-contact types across every joint.

Which Chinese company supplies most humanoid joint bearings?

Luoyang Hongyuan (HONB) supplies roughly 90% of the joint bearings inside domestic Chinese humanoids — including Unitree, AgiBot, Zhongqing and UBTECH — from its base in Luoyang, Henan.

What is a flexspline (flexible) bearing?

A flexspline bearing is the ultra-thin bearing inside a harmonic drive's flexspline. Its wall is only 2-5mm and it must survive cyclic deformation of 5-8% of diameter at high speed — historically a near-monopoly of Japanese harmonic makers.

Are Chinese bearings competitive against SKF and Schaeffler?

Chinese makers still hold under 15% of global high-end bearing value, but have broken through in robotics: Luoyang Hongyuan covers ~90% of domestic humanoid joint bearings, Wuzhou Xinchun entered Tesla's Optimus chain, and LYC locked UBTECH's hip joints. SKF and Schaeffler are responding with China joint ventures and new forming processes.