Last updated: 3 October 2026.
Quick answer. China's register splits wire rope by use rather than by one product number. Three applications, lifts, ropeways and mine hoists, are governed by mandatory national standards GB 8903, GB 26722 and GB 33955, all effective 2024. General-purpose rope sits under recommended standards, and the literal term 钢丝绳 also returns conveyor-belt standards.
Every standard number, title, status and date below was read from the National Standards Information Public Service Platform, operated under China's State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of China. That platform is a Chinese-language registry; the English titles here are this page's own translation of the official Chinese titles, and the Chinese original governs. No standard's technical content is reproduced on this page — what follows is the register: which standards exist, what each covers by its official title, whether it is in force, and when it took effect. The platform was queried on 3 October 2026 and is listed at the end.
A foreign buyer specifying wire rope from China meets two problems at once. The first is that the standards a Chinese mill works to are Chinese, while the terms a Western buyer knows — wire rope, strand, sling, shackle, turnbuckle — are partly called something else, and partly governed under numbers that describe a use rather than a product. The second is that China's register of national standards is public and searchable, but it tells you what a standard is, not what it requires.
This page is about the first problem. It maps the register. It does not pretend to be the second, and it says so again at the end.
Two companion pages on this site cover neighbouring ground: how China's national standards are organised explains the difference between the mandatory GB, the recommended GB/T and the guiding GB/Z, which is the distinction this page leans on throughout; and the wire-mesh standard map applies the same method to mesh, where the literal term 钢丝网 turns out to mean something else.
Why this matters more for rope than for other hardware. Wire rope is the rare category where the application dictates the standard. A rope for a lift is not specified under the same document as a rope for a general lifting sling, and one of those documents is mandatory. A buyer who shops on price alone, without naming the application, is not comparing like with like.
The platform's title search was queried on 3 October 2026 for each Chinese term below. Unless stated otherwise, each figure is the number of records whose official title contains that term, split by the status the register reports for it.
| Chinese term searched | English gloss | Records reported | Distinct codes retrieved | In force | Superseded / withdrawn | Published, not yet effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钢丝绳 | steel wire rope | 140 | 130 | 61 | 67 | 2 |
| 钢丝绳芯输送带 | steel-cord conveyor belt | 26 | 26 | 12 | 13 | 1 |
| 钢丝绳吊索 | wire rope sling | 9 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| 钢丝绳检验 | wire rope inspection | 8 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 索具 | rigging | 8 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| 吊环 | lifting eye | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 电梯用钢丝绳 | wire rope for lifts | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 卸扣 | shackle | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 压制钢丝绳 | pressed / swaged wire rope assembly | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 钢丝绳夹 | wire rope clip | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 钢丝绳索具 | wire rope assembly | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 密封钢丝绳 | locked-coil wire rope | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 面接触钢丝绳 | face-contact wire rope | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 起重链 | hoist chain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 索具螺旋扣 | turnbuckle | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Read that table with three warnings attached.
Searching the literal Chinese term for wire rope returns 140 records, and roughly a quarter of them are not about rope at all.
Of the 130 distinct codes the search returned, 65 carry none of the descriptors conveyor belt, rope core, test method, inspection / retirement, terminology / marking or selection — these 65 are the rope products and rope-end fittings proper. The other 65 fall into one or more of these overlapping groups:
| Group | Codes | Why it appears under a wire-rope search |
|---|---|---|
| Steel-cord conveyor belt (钢丝绳芯输送带 family) | 29 | The rope is a component inside a rubber belt, not a rope product. Includes 输送带用钢丝绳 (wire rope for conveyor belts) and the multi-part GB/T 28267 series |
| Test methods (试验 / 测定) | 27 | Rope test methods, and the belt family's own test methods |
| Inspection, retirement, use and maintenance | 8 | How a rope is inspected, maintained and retired in service |
| Terminology, marking, packaging and certificates | 8 | 钢丝绳术语, acceptance and defect terminology, packaging and quality certificate rules |
| Selection (选择 / 选型) | 4 | How a rope is selected for a crane, hoist, drum or sheave |
| Rope cores (剑麻 / 黄麻) | 4 | Sisal and jute cores, i.e. the fibre centre of a rope |
Practically: if a supplier quotes "Chinese standard for wire rope" without a number, the number may belong to a conveyor belt. The single most useful thing a buyer can do is require the standard number and then check its official title.
Two further oddities the same search surfaces, both worth knowing because both look like rope standards and neither is one:
Seven of the 130 codes are mandatory national standards (GB) rather than recommended ones (GB/T) — and of those, exactly three are in force. All three were published on the same day, 25 June 2024, and took effect on the same day, 25 September 2024:
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Application | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB 8903-2024 | Wire rope for lifts | Elevators / lifts | In force, effective 2024-09-25 |
| GB 26722-2024 | Wire rope for ropeways | Cableways and ropeways | In force, effective 2024-09-25 |
| GB 33955-2024 | Wire rope for mine hoisting | Mine hoists | In force, effective 2024-09-25 |
The four mandatory standards that are withdrawn are GB 8903-1988 (lifts), GB 6946-1993 (aluminium-alloy pressed rope-end terminations), GB 9075-1988 (ropeway rope inspection and retirement) and GB 14738-1993 (port-handling wire-rope slings).
What this pattern means for a specification. Three of the most safety-critical rope applications in China are governed by compulsory documents; the general-purpose product is not. A buyer importing rope for a lift, a ropeway or a mine hoist is naming an application with a mandatory standard behind it, and the rope supplier's paperwork should be able to name that number. This page states the pattern and the numbers — it does not state what those standards require.
The following rope-product standards within this set were in force on 3 October 2026. The dates are the register's publication date and effective date.
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Published | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 20118-2025 | General technical conditions for wire rope | 2025-08-29 | 2026-03-01 |
| GB/T 9944-2025 | Stainless steel wire rope | 2025-08-29 | 2026-03-01 |
| GB/T 34197-2025 | Wire rope for electric shovels | 2025-08-29 | 2026-03-01 |
| GB/T 14451-2025 | Wire rope for controls | 2025-06-30 | 2026-01-01 |
| GB/T 8918-2006 | Wire rope for important purposes | 2006-03-01 | 2006-09-01 |
| GB/T 20119-2023 | Wire rope for balancing | 2023-09-07 | 2024-04-01 |
| GB/T 34198-2017 | Wire rope for cranes | 2017-09-07 | 2018-06-01 |
| GB/T 33364-2016 | Wire rope for offshore engineering mooring | 2016-12-30 | 2017-09-01 |
| GB/T 40089-2021 | Wire rope for the oil and gas industry — minimum requirements and acceptance conditions | 2021-04-30 | 2021-11-01 |
| GB/T 43106-2023 | Wire rope for deep-sea exploration | 2023-09-07 | 2024-04-01 |
| GB/T 43312-2023 | Wire rope for medical devices | 2023-11-27 | 2024-06-01 |
| GB/T 36131-2018 | Plastic-coated wire rope for motor-vehicle brake assemblies | 2018-05-14 | 2019-02-01 |
| GB/T 38232-2025 | Wire rope netting for engineering | 2025-08-29 | 2026-03-01 |
| GB/T 38818-2020 | Wire rope for suspension-bridge hangers | 2020-06-02 | 2020-12-01 |
| GB/T 38803-2020 | Specification for wire rope failure analysis | 2020-06-02 | 2020-12-01 |
| GB/T 29086-2012 | Wire rope — safety — use and maintenance | 2012-12-31 | 2013-10-01 |
| GB/T 29131-2012 | Marine wire-rope vibration isolator | 2012-12-31 | 2013-07-01 |
Read the list by application, not by number. The register is organised by what the rope is for — general purpose, lifts, ropeways, mine hoists, cranes, electric shovels, offshore mooring, deep-sea exploration, medical devices, suspension bridges, vehicle brakes, controls, balancing. There is no single "wire rope" product standard that covers a general specification and every use; GB/T 20118 (general technical conditions) is the closest thing to a default, and it was replaced as recently as 2025-08-29, effective 2026-03-01.
Rope-end hardware is a separate sub-register, and it is where the traps cluster.
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Status | Published | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 5973-2026 | Lifting machinery — wire rope end fixed-connection terminations | In force | 2026-01-28 | 2026-08-01 |
| GB/T 5974-2025 | Lifting machinery — thimbles for wire rope | In force | 2025-05-30 | 2025-12-01 |
| GB/T 5976-2006 | Wire rope clips | In force | 2006-04-03 | 2006-09-01 |
| GB/T 6946-2008 | Aluminium-alloy pressed wire-rope terminations | In force | 2008-07-27 | 2009-02-01 |
| GB/T 5973-2006 | Wedge-type terminations for wire rope | Withdrawn | 2006-04-03 | 2006-09-01 |
| GB/T 5973-1986 | Wedge-type terminations for wire rope | Withdrawn | 1986-04-03 | 1986-12-01 |
| GB/T 5974.1-1986 | Ordinary thimbles for wire rope | Withdrawn | 1986-04-03 | 1986-12-01 |
| GB/T 5974.2-1986 | Heavy-duty thimbles for wire rope | Withdrawn | 1986-04-03 | 1986-12-01 |
| GB/T 5975-1986 | Clamping plates for wire rope | Withdrawn | 1986-04-03 | 1986-12-01 |
| GB/T 5975-2006 | Clamping plates for wire rope | Withdrawn | 2006-04-03 | 2006-09-01 |
| GB 6946-1993 | Aluminium-alloy pressed wire-rope terminations | Withdrawn (mandatory) | 1993-12-27 | 1994-08-01 |
Four things a buyer can read off that table:
The assembled product — rope plus end plus hardware — has its own documents. If you buy the hardware separately from the rope, the adjacency is real: fasteners and threaded hardware sit on the same bill of materials, and their own standard map follows the same title-search method.
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Status | Published | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 16271-2025 | Wire rope slings — hand-spliced eyes | In force | 2025-06-30 | 2026-01-01 |
| GB/T 16762-2020 | Characteristics and technical conditions of general-purpose wire rope slings | In force | 2020-12-14 | 2021-07-01 |
| GB/T 30587-2014 | Wire rope slings — grommets | In force | 2014-03-27 | 2015-01-01 |
| GB/T 39480-2020 | Wire rope slings — use and maintenance | In force | 2020-11-19 | 2021-06-01 |
| GB/T 30589-2014 | Wire rope ends — swaged ferrule terminations | In force | 2014-03-27 | 2015-01-01 |
| GB/T 30588-2014 | Wire rope ends — alloy cast sockets | In force | 2014-03-27 | 2015-01-01 |
| GB/T 25854-2010 | D-type and bow-type forged shackles for general lifting | In force | 2011-01-10 | 2011-06-01 |
| GB/T 25855-2010 | Grade-8 connecting links for rigging | In force | 2011-01-10 | 2011-06-01 |
| GB/T 825-1988 | Lifting eye bolts | In force | 1988-04-16 | 1989-01-01 |
| GB/T 8395-2007 | Lifting rings | In force | 2007-12-05 | 2008-09-01 |
| GB/T 8395-2026 | Lifting rings | Published, not yet effective | 2026-04-30 | 2027-05-01 |
| GB/T 27696-2011 | Grade-4 forged lifting eye bolts for general lifting | In force | 2011-12-30 | 2012-06-01 |
| GB/T 14736-2009 | Technical conditions for the use of lifting rings in port handling | In force | 2009-09-30 | 2009-11-01 |
Two notes. First, GB/T 8395-2026 is the only upcoming change in this sub-family: the lifting-ring standard has a replacement published on 2026-04-30 that takes effect on 2027-05-01, so a specification written today sits between two versions of the same document. Second, the sling assembly standard GB/T 16271-2025 took effect on 2026-01-01, replacing the 1996 and 2009 versions of hand-spliced-eye slings — a change recent enough that older supplier datasheets may still cite the superseded number.
Once the rope is in service, a different group of documents governs it.
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Status | Published | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 5972-2023 | Cranes — wire rope — maintenance, upkeep, inspection and retirement | In force | 2023-05-23 | 2023-12-01 |
| GB/T 9075-2008 | Specification for the inspection and retirement of wire rope used on ropeways | In force | 2008-10-13 | 2009-05-01 |
| GB/T 29086-2012 | Wire rope — safety — use and maintenance | In force | 2012-12-31 | 2013-10-01 |
| GB/T 39480-2020 | Wire rope slings — use and maintenance | In force | 2020-11-19 | 2021-06-01 |
| GB/T 38803-2020 | Specification for wire rope failure analysis | In force | 2020-06-02 | 2020-12-01 |
| GB/T 5972-2016 | Cranes — wire rope — maintenance, upkeep, inspection and retirement | Withdrawn | 2016-02-24 | 2016-06-01 |
| GB/T 5972-2009 | Cranes — wire rope — maintenance, upkeep, installation, inspection and retirement | Withdrawn | 2009-12-15 | 2010-07-01 |
| GB/T 5972-2006 | Practical specification for the inspection and retirement of wire rope used in cranes | Withdrawn | 2006-04-03 | 2006-09-01 |
| GB/T 5972-1986 | Practical specification for the inspection and retirement of wire rope used in lifting machinery | Withdrawn | 1986-04-03 | 1986-12-01 |
| GB 9075-1988 | Specification for the inspection and retirement of wire rope used on aerial ropeways | Withdrawn (mandatory) | 1988-04-18 | 1989-01-01 |
The crane-rope inspection standard has been replaced four times. Four of the five versions in this register are withdrawn, and the current one is GB/T 5972-2023. Where a buying organisation's incoming-inspection procedure cites a retirement criterion under a GB/T 5972 number, that number is worth checking against this list before it is used in a contract — this page prints the register, not the criterion. For how inspection is bought and evidenced rather than how a rope is retired, see quality control on a Chinese order.
| Standard | Official title (this page's translation) | Status | Published | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 8706-2017 | Wire rope — terminology, designation and classification | In force | 2017-12-29 | 2018-09-01 |
| GB/T 21965-2020 | Wire rope — acceptance and defect terminology | In force | 2020-07-21 | 2021-02-01 |
| GB/T 2104-2025 | General rules for the packaging, marking and quality certificate of wire rope | In force | 2025-12-02 | 2026-07-01 |
| GB/T 24811.1-2009 | Cranes and lifting appliances — selection of wire ropes — part 1: general | In force | 2009-12-15 | 2010-07-01 |
| GB/T 24811.2-2009 | Cranes and lifting appliances — selection of wire ropes — part 2: mobile cranes — coefficient of utilisation | In force | 2009-12-15 | 2010-07-01 |
| GB/T 34529-2017 | Cranes and hoists — selection of wire ropes, drums and sheaves | In force | 2017-10-14 | 2018-05-01 |
| GB/T 37452-2019 | Method for selecting wire rope for offshore platform cranes | In force | 2019-05-10 | 2019-12-01 |
| GB/T 8358-2023 | Wire rope — determination of breaking force | In force | 2023-05-23 | 2023-12-01 |
| GB/T 12347-2025 | Wire rope — fatigue test method | In force | 2025-12-02 | 2026-07-01 |
| GB/T 43357-2023 | General performance test methods for wire rope | In force | 2023-11-27 | 2024-03-01 |
| GB/T 43491-2023 | Wire rope — creep test method | In force | 2023-12-28 | 2024-04-01 |
| GB/T 45460-2025 | Wire rope — determination of radial stiffness under no axial load | In force | 2025-03-28 | 2025-10-01 |
| GB/T 24191-2009 | Wire rope — determination of the actual modulus of elasticity | In force | 2009-07-08 | 2010-04-01 |
| GB/T 31979-2015 | Wire rope — determination of rotational properties | In force | 2015-09-11 | 2016-06-01 |
Note the recency at the test-method end: fatigue testing (GB/T 12347-2025, effective 2026-07-01), packaging and quality certificates (GB/T 2104-2025, effective 2026-07-01) and radial stiffness (GB/T 45460-2025, effective 2025-10-01) have all moved recently. A quality plan written more than a year ago may be citing superseded methods.
Two neighbouring registers are worth reading alongside this one: material specification and EN 10204 document types for the paperwork that accompanies a steel batch, and the ASTM, CE and UL landscape for the destination-market side of the same question. To have a rope or assembly quoted against a named standard, the quote route is the entry point.
Two terms a Western buyer would expect to find returned zero records whose official title contains them:
Read that correctly: a zero here means the register contains no national-standard record whose title carries that word. It does not mean hoist chain or turnbuckles are unregulated, unavailable or non-compliant in China, and it does not mean no standard covers them — a standard covering turnbuckles may simply be titled differently, and any such document was not identified by this search. The commercial consequence is narrow but real: for these two items there is no ready-made national-standard number to write into a purchase specification, so a specification has to carry the drawing, the material and the test method instead. Two neighbouring terms do return records — 卸扣 (shackle), 4 records, 3 in force and 吊环 (lifting eye), 7 records, 4 in force — which is why the zero results above are worth stating rather than assuming.
⚠️ Query-scope disclosure. The counts above are title-search results. A standard whose official title does not contain the searched term is not counted, even if it governs the product. The term sets overlap and must not be summed. 140 records for 钢丝绳 is therefore not a count of Chinese wire-rope standards — it is a count of records whose titles contain that word, and 29 of those codes belong to steel-cord conveyor belts. A paginated pull of 钢丝绳 returned 135 rows which deduplicate to 130 distinct codes; the remaining ten records reported were not retrieved and nothing is inferred about them. Industry standards (JB/T and similar), local standards and enterprise standards are outside this register and were not searched. The terms 穿孔板-style partial-name searches were not run for this page: only the terms printed in the two tables above were queried.
⚠️ Translation. The sources are Chinese-language. The English renderings of standard numbers' titles on this page are this page's own translation; the Chinese original governs. Standard numbers (GB, GB/T) are given as the register prints them.
There is no single one. China's register organises wire rope standards by use: GB/T 20118-2025 (general technical conditions, effective 2026-03-01) is the closest to a default for general-purpose rope, while lifts, ropeways, mine hoists, cranes, offshore mooring, deep-sea exploration and medical devices each have their own documents. Three applications are governed by mandatory standards: GB 8903-2024 (lifts), GB 26722-2024 (ropeways) and GB 33955-2024 (mine hoists), all effective 25 September 2024.
Within the records whose official title contains 钢丝绳, seven are mandatory national standards (GB) and three are in force — GB 8903-2024 for lifts, GB 26722-2024 for ropeways and GB 33955-2024 for mine hoists. The other four mandatory standards — GB 8903-1988, GB 6946-1993, GB 9075-1988 and GB 14738-1993 — are withdrawn.
No. The status and the title both have to be checked. Two examples: 钢丝绳用压板 has no in-force standard under that title, because both GB/T 5975-1986 and GB/T 5975-2006 are withdrawn; and a title search for 钢丝绳 returns 29 codes belonging to steel-cord conveyor belts (钢丝绳芯输送带), where the rope is a component inside a belt rather than the product itself. Requiring the number, then checking its official title and status in the register, is the check this page supports.
It means the register contains no national-standard record whose official title contains the searched term. Searching 起重链 (hoist chain) and 索具螺旋扣 (turnbuckle) returned zero records each on 3 October 2026. That does not mean those products are unregulated or unavailable in China; it means no ready-made national-standard number was identified to write into a purchase specification, so a specification for those items has to carry the drawing, material and test method instead.
This page does not say so, and no such equivalence is claimed. The register recorded here is China's national register, and the corresponding ASTM, ISO, EN or DIN registers were not retrieved. Buyers who need a cross-reference should obtain it from the standard bodies or from a testing laboratory, not from a mapping implied by two similar titles.
All sources retrieved 3 October 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the official pages themselves are the specification.
| Fact used on this page | Source |
|---|---|
| S1 — The entire standard register used on this page, retrieved 3 October 2026: for each searched term, the number of records whose official title contains it and their status split (钢丝绳 140 reported / 130 distinct retrieved = 61 in force + 67 withdrawn + 2 published not yet effective; 钢丝绳芯输送带 26 = 12 + 13 + 1; 钢丝绳吊索 9 = 5 + 4; 钢丝绳检验 8 = 2 + 5 + 1; 索具 8 = 6 + 2; 吊环 7 = 4 + 2 + 1; 电梯用钢丝绳 5 = 2 + 3; 卸扣 4 = 3 + 1; 压制钢丝绳 3 = 2 + 1; 钢丝绳夹 2 = 1 + 1; 钢丝绳索具 2 = 1 + 1; 密封钢丝绳 1 = 1 withdrawn; 面接触钢丝绳 1 = 1 withdrawn; 起重链 0; 索具螺旋扣 0); the decomposition of the 130 distinct 钢丝绳 codes into 65 rope-product/rope-end codes and overlapping groups of 29 belt, 27 test-method, 8 inspection/retirement, 8 terminology/marking, 4 selection and 4 rope-core codes; and, for every standard named, its standard number, official Chinese title, national-standard nature (mandatory or recommended), status, publication date and effective date | Standardization Administration of China / State Administration for Market Regulation — National Standards Information Public Service Platform, standard search, Chinese (retrieved 2026-10-03) https://std.samr.gov.cn/ |
| S2 — The query used for S1 was run against the platform's standard search endpoint with each Chinese term above as the search text | Standardization Administration of China — National Standards Information Public Service Platform, search query endpoint (retrieved 2026-10-03) https://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbQueryPage |