China (mainland) – HDMI connectors are a leading segment in mainland China's connector industry. One of the main production hubs for the segment is Dongguan, which is estimated to have over 20 large- and mid-scale HDMI connector makers. Dongguan, which is one of the oldest production centers for PC and multimedia connectors, began entering the HDMI connector line in early 2004. Of the city's 28 towns and four districts, Changan, Shijie, Tangxia, Liaobu, Changping and Dalingshan are the most active in HDMI connector production.

Most makers currently only produce type A HDMI connectors, generally used in LCD TVs, set-top boxes, game boxes and cables. For instance, Dongguan Pulixing Electronics Co. Ltd manufactures type A 19-pin HDMI female connectors for A/V products.

The HDMI 1.3 version, released in June last year attracted a lot of attention, particularly, as type C's compact size permits HDMI interfaces to be designed into various portable electronics such as mobile phones, PDAs, MP4 players and portable DVD players.

Some makers, such as Dongguan Freeport Resources Ent. Corp., produce cables that reach up to 2m for the 30AWG cable and 1.5m for 32AWG cable.

At present, Freeport's main product lines include throughhole or vertical type surfacemount HDMI connectors, male or receptacle cable-end connectors, HDMI adapters, HDMI wallplates, extenders and switchers. The company aims to become an HDMI total solution provider.

Other Dongguan companies provide HDMI connectors in various form factors, such as straight, right-angle, and surface- mount type connectors. Surfaces are either nickel- or gold-plated, the latter quoted about 5 cents per unit higher than the former; yet gold-plated HDMI connectors are also more popular.

Manufacturers normally plate their connectors in gold with thicknesses of 3µm to 5µm on the shell and 10µm to 15µm on the terminal end. The preferred price for gold-plated connectors is 35 cents per unit. If customers prefer the terminal end to be plated at a thickness of 30µm, the unit price increases by over 15 percent.

Most suppliers forecast that prices of HDMI connectors will remain stable or decline by 5 percent at most in the next six months.