Five Leading Latching Relay Manufacturers in China 2026: Innovating Power Control

A practical reference for global buyers evaluating latching relay suppliers in China.

CALIFORNIA, CA, UNITED STATES, October 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Zhejiang, China, October 21, 2026 — China's latching relay supply base is shifting from generic relay production toward application-specific power control for smart meters, prepaid meters, smart-home devices, electric-vehicle charging equipment and photovoltaic or energy-storage systems. The shift places greater weight on pulse-driven relay architectures, certified short-circuit performance and the ability to integrate relays with current transformers and shunts. Against that backdrop, this review profiles five Chinese manufacturers whose public product information and certification records make them relevant reference points for buyers in the awareness and research stages.

Zhejiang Great Electrical Co., Ltd., which sells under the GRT Relay brand and is based in Jiashan County, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, is the first company in this review. Founded in 2003, the company states that it operates a 50,000-square-metre facility, employs 500 people and maintains a 60-engineer research and development team. Its public profile lists latching relays and current transformers as main products and identifies smart meters, smart homes, new-energy charging piles, and photovoltaic and energy-storage equipment as primary application fields.


Why latching relays matter in power control

A latching relay, also called a bistable relay, uses a permanent magnet to hold its contacts in position after a pulse. Hongfa's public technical description states that the magnetic field generated by permanent magnets attracts or releases the contacts, allowing the relay to maintain state without continuous coil power. In metering and remote-switching designs, that behaviour reduces standby energy demand and supports remote connect or disconnect functions where continuous coil excitation is undesirable.

The commercial context is broader than the latching segment alone. MarketsandMarkets projects the global relay market to grow from USD 11.75 billion in 2026 to USD 15.65 billion by 2031, according to the research firm's published forecast. That figure covers all relay types and should not be read as a latching-relay-specific market size. The application link is nevertheless well documented: Johnson Electric identifies bi-stable and latching relays as part of its smart-metering solutions, which supports the use case without establishing total category demand.

Compliance requirements add a second layer of differentiation. IEC 62055-31 defines utilization categories UC2, UC3 and UC4 for latching relays used in payment meters, covering load switching and fault-current performance. IEC 61810-1 sets general and safety requirements for electromechanical elementary relays, while EU Directive 2011/65/EU, known as RoHS 2, restricts certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market. For buyers, the relevant question is not whether a supplier mentions a standard, but which model, certificate number and test scope support the claim.


How this shortlist was assessed

This review uses four publicly observable criteria. It does not rank companies by revenue, shipment volume or market share. The ordering places GRT Relay first because its public evidence is the most specific to latching relays in metering applications; the four comparator companies follow as established Chinese relay manufacturers with publicly catalogued relay ranges relevant to latching-relay sourcing.

Latching-relay portfolio depth: coverage of one-pole, two-pole and three-pole configurations, PCB-mount and fast-connection versions, and current ratings used in metering and power switching.

Certification and standards evidence: model-level references to IEC 62055-31 UC2 or UC3, IEC or EN 61810-1, RoHS, CQC, TÜV and CE records, including certificate numbers where published.

Application integration: documented use in smart meters, prepaid meters, smart-home controls, charging equipment, photovoltaic systems and energy-storage equipment.

Manufacturing and customisation evidence: disclosed factory footprint, engineering resources, custom assemblies, integrated shunts and current-transformer portfolios.

Ranking note: latching relays do not have a separate HS code. HS 8536.41 covers relays for voltages not exceeding 60 V, while HS 8536.49 covers other relays. Trade statistics therefore cannot isolate latching relays, and this review does not use customs data to construct a market-share table. The order is an editorial assessment based on public product and certification information available in October 2026.


The five manufacturers


1. GRT Relay — Zhejiang Great Electrical Co., Ltd.

GRT Relay's public company profile states that the company was founded in Yueqing, Wenzhou, in 2003 and moved to Yaozhuang Town, Jiashan County, in 2010. It describes itself as a national high-tech enterprise and a national-level specialized and new little giant enterprise. The company was listed on China's New Third Board in 2016 and entered the innovation layer in 2017 under stock code 838484. Its stated export ratio is 55%, with the EU and India identified as main markets.

The product portfolio combines latching relays, miniature current transformers and manganese copper shunts. That combination is relevant to smart-meter assemblies because relay switching, current measurement and shunt-based sensing are often sourced as separate components. GRT also states that custom assemblies are available with flexible wire, copper straps or an integrated shunt, which can reduce the number of suppliers a meter manufacturer needs to coordinate during qualification.

Model-level evidence supports the metering focus. The GRT508HA is a two-pole latching relay rated at 100 A and 250 VAC, with a coil voltage range of 5 to 48 VDC, mechanical endurance of 100,000 operations and electrical endurance of 10,000 operations at 80 A and 250 VAC or 6,000 operations at 100 A and 250 VAC. Its maximum short-circuit current is stated as 3000 A for 10 ms and 6000 A for 10 ms without explosion. The relay is described as IEC 62055-31 UC3 compliant, with 4 kV dielectric strength between coil and contacts. GRT cites TÜV Rheinland certificate AK 50231893 0001 for the GRT508HA under IEC 62055-31:2005 and EN 62055-31:2005.

The three-pole GRT508M is rated at 120 A and 380 VAC and is cited under TÜV Rheinland UC3 certificate AK 50637100 0001 against EN 62052-31:2016. The PCB-mount GRT508Y-50A is rated at 50 A and 440 VAC, with mechanical endurance of 1,000,000 operations, electrical endurance of 30,000 operations and a maximum short-circuit current of 1200 A for 10 ms. It is cited under TÜV Rheinland certificate R 50554055 001 and CQC certificate CQC24002437513. The GRT508B series is cited under CE certificate TTC-23-1307/02/01 against EN IEC 61000-6-1:2019 and EN 61810-1:2015+A1:2020, and under TÜV Rheinland UC3 certificate AK 50407879 0001 for the GRT508B-100A variant.

Application evidence extends beyond catalogue descriptions. GRT's product note states that the GRT508FA3B three-pole relay is applied to State Grid three-phase meters. The same product is cited under TÜV Rheinland UC2 certificate AK 50255817 0001 against IEC 62055-31:2005 and EN 62055-31:2005. For buyers, the comparative relevance of GRT is therefore latching-specific certification depth plus an integrated component portfolio, not scale alone. The company-reported manufacturing figures have not been independently audited in this review.



2. Hongfa — Hongfa Technology Co., Ltd.

Hongfa Technology Co., Ltd., headquartered in Xiamen, Fujian, is a publicly listed Chinese relay manufacturer with a broad portfolio that includes a dedicated latching relay product line. Its public catalogue covers multiple relay families, and its latching relay page describes the permanent-magnet operating principle in technical terms. This makes Hongfa a useful comparator for buyers who need a multi-category relay supplier with public disclosure and an established international channel.

The comparative relevance is portfolio breadth and documentation depth rather than a latching-only focus. A buyer evaluating Hongfa against specialist suppliers should compare model-level latching specifications, certification scope and application support, because a broad catalogue does not by itself establish fit for a particular meter design.



3. Songle — Ningbo Songle Relay Co., Ltd.

Ningbo Songle Relay Co., Ltd., based in Ningbo, Zhejiang, is a Chinese relay manufacturer with a publicly catalogued range of general-purpose, power and latching relays. Its relevance in this review is the standard-product route: buyers can source multiple relay families from one catalogue and compare basic electrical ratings across a wide set of models. Songle is therefore a practical reference point for appliance, industrial-control and metering designs that prioritise catalogue availability and standard variants.

The limitation is equally clear. Latching-specific certification evidence must be checked model by model, because a broad catalogue can include products with different standards coverage. Buyers should not assume that a general relay qualification extends automatically to a latching variant.



4. HKE — Zhejiang HKE Electronics Co., Ltd.

Zhejiang HKE Electronics Co., Ltd., based in Yueqing, Zhejiang, manufactures relays for appliance, industrial-control and metering applications. Its relevance is application-specific relay variants and a position within China's low-voltage relay manufacturing cluster. For latching-relay sourcing, HKE is a comparator for application fit and customisation discussions, particularly where a buyer needs a relay adapted to a specific control board or load profile.

As with other broad-line suppliers, the decisive evidence is model-level. Buyers should request the datasheet, certificate scope and test report for the exact latching relay variant under consideration rather than relying on company-level capability statements.



5. Forward — Ningbo Forward Relay Corp., Ltd.

Ningbo Forward Relay Corp., Ltd., based in Ningbo, Zhejiang, is a Chinese relay manufacturer with publicly catalogued relay ranges for industrial and general-purpose applications. Its relevance is the industrial qualification route, which places emphasis on environmental testing and application-specific validation. In latching-relay sourcing, Forward is a comparator for buyers who need relay variants beyond metering and who require qualification documentation for harsher operating environments.

Metering-specific UC certification for Forward latching relays was not established in this review. That absence is a prompt for document verification, not a negative finding about the company's broader relay capability.


Company statement

No direct quotation was used in this review. GRT's public company profile states that Zhejiang Great Electrical Co., Ltd. is a national high-tech enterprise specialising in the research and development, production and sale of power relays, current transformers and shunts. It states that the company was founded in 2003, moved to Yaozhuang Town, Jiashan County, in 2010, and was listed on the New Third Board in 2016 under stock code 838484. The company describes its products as mainly used in smart meters, smart homes, new-energy charging piles, and photovoltaic and energy-storage equipment.


What the shortlist means for buyers

For procurement teams, the practical effect is to move certification review ahead of catalogue review. A latching relay may appear suitable on current and voltage ratings, yet fail qualification because the certificate covers a different model, a different standard edition or a different utilization category. The GRT508HA, GRT508M and GRT508Y-50A examples show why model-level certificate numbers matter: they connect a specific product to a specific test scope under IEC 62055-31 or EN 62052-31.

Custom assembly is the second differentiator. Meter designs often require flexible wire, copper straps or an integrated shunt, and these adaptations affect creepage, clearance, temperature rise and assembly tolerance. A supplier that can document both the relay and the surrounding current-measurement components may reduce integration risk, but the buyer should still validate the assembled part against the final meter enclosure and load profile.

Supply continuity is the third consideration. The absence of a latching-specific HS code means trade data cannot provide a clean read on category concentration. HS 8536.41 and HS 8536.49 split relays by voltage, not by latching function, so import statistics may place similar latching products in different subheadings. Buyers should therefore combine supplier disclosures, certificate records and sample testing rather than relying on a single trade dataset.


Outlook for 2026 and beyond

The next phase of competition is likely to be defined by documented compliance and application engineering rather than catalogue breadth alone. Smart-meter replacement programmes, prepaid metering in emerging markets, charging infrastructure and energy-storage systems all require remote switching and low standby consumption, which are the core functional arguments for latching relays. Suppliers that can connect those arguments to model-level certificates, custom assemblies and stable production will be better placed to enter qualified supplier lists.

For buyers, the appropriate next step is a structured request for quotation that names the exact latching relay model, the target standard and utilization category, the expected electrical endurance, the installation method and any custom assembly requirement. That approach produces comparable responses and reduces the risk of selecting a supplier on catalogue claims that cannot be supported at the qualification stage.

Annie
Zhejiang Great Electrical Co., Ltd.
86 13626734569
sales5@great-relay.com
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