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China’s mold industry - Plastic Injection Molding Company Mold Tooling Manufacturer

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China’s mold industry

The Development History of China’s Mold Industry

The article discusses the development of China’s mold industry, stating that it started relatively late but has undergone significant changes since the mid-1980s, especially in the past decade. As a mold supplier factory, JBR catched the opportunity of China’s mold industry development,and keep growing since established on 1995.  China has become a major producer of molds worldwide, with a considerable market share in most sectors. However, the high-end mold sector still heavily relies on imports. The overall level of molds in China remains predominantly in the mid to low-end range.

Plastic Mold factory view
JBR Plastic Mold factory view

Historically, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there were no specialized mold factories. In the 1950s and 1960s, with the establishment of automobile factories, tool factories affiliated with the main factories gradually emerged, initially following the Soviet model. With the development of the automotive industry, these tool factories gradually transformed into mold factories.

For instance, Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) started as the Beijing Automotive Tooling Branch in the 1960s, then became Beijing Jeep in the 1980s, mainly producing fixtures, cutting tools, stamping dies, forging dies, casting core boxes, die-casting molds, injection molds, rubber molds, and various types of jigs. By the late 1990s, it gradually shifted towards a stamping mold factory.

Since the 1990s, private mold factories have emerged, with the introduction of a large number of CNC machine tools and the gradual implementation of CAD, CAE, and CAM systems. This has led to a flourishing mold industry in China, transforming it into a major mold manufacturing power. However, most of these factories still operate with a model of either being large and comprehensive or small and comprehensive, producing mainly low-end molds, with few in the mid to high-end range, leading to intense competition in the low-end market.

One of the major obstacles hindering the industry from becoming stronger, specialized, and refined is the comprehensive production mode prevalent in Chinese mold manufacturing, lacking specialization or insufficient specialization.

Currently, there are approximately 30,000 mold manufacturing factories in China, with state-owned enterprises accounting for about 5%, joint ventures about 10%, and private enterprises about 85%. The number of employees is approximately 1 million, with around 5,000 enterprises having an annual output value exceeding 20 million yuan. In 2015, the total output value of molds in China was approximately 170 billion yuan, with around 40 billion yuan for in-house mold production by enterprises, totaling 210 billion yuan. The per capita output value of molds in China is around 210,000 yuan.

Comparatively, Japan’s per capita mold output value is 1.2 million yuan, the United States’ is 1.27 million yuan, and Germany’s is 2 million yuan. This indicates that the per capita mold output value of the United States and Japan is 3-5 times that of China, while Germany’s is 5-9 times higher.

The main reasons for the low per capita output value are that the majority of molds produced in China are low-end, resulting in low added value, and the low production efficiency. Despite having comparable equipment, the lack of specialization hampers technological advancement, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement.

Professional mold making workshop
JBR mold making factory view

The article emphasizes the necessity of specialization and intensive production for mold enterprises to improve technology, quality, and efficiency, transitioning from being comprehensive to being specialized and refined.

As mold manufacturing technology continues to advance, the variety of molds will become increasingly diverse. No single mold enterprise can master all these technologies entirely. Therefore, the future of mold manufacturing will inevitably be highly specialized.

The article concludes that China’s mold industry has shown a trend towards specialized and intensive production, advocating for the continuous development of this trend. It expresses hopes for the flourishing of the Chinese mold industry and believes that as long as the path of specialized production is adhered to, the dawn of a strong mold nation will be visible, fulfilling the dreams of generations in the mold industry.