Analysis of the world's mold manufacturing industry

Major mold manufacturers in the world include Japan, South Korea and mainland China in the Asian region, the United States in the Americas and Germany in the European region. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the mold industry of each country, analyze the competitiveness of China's mold industry and the differences with the mold industry of other countries.

1. Mold industry of each country

In the world's mold production and consumption of large countries, mainland China's mold production enterprises and employees account for the vast majority. State-owned enterprises accounted for 70%, foreign-funded enterprises also account for a larger proportion. Some large mold factory has 600-700 employees, some even have thousands of mold workers. Take cikmold for example, a large ISO 9001 certified company specializing in injection molds, mold making, die manufacturing, casting molds, rubber molds, mold design, die casting and other industries, with nearly 6,000 employees in China. Medium-sized companies have 150-300 workers, while small mold factories have at least 50 workers. However, the mold industry in other countries is dominated by small and medium-sized factories.

In terms of product categories, Japan and China concentrated on injection molds and plastic molds, reaching more than 80% in 2009. In terms of market applications, automotive molds are mainly manufactured in Japan, South Korea, the United States and Germany, while electronics and telecommunication molds are mainly manufactured in China.

According to the import and export status of each country, Japan, South Korea and Germany are strong export-oriented countries for molds, while mainland China and the United States are strong import-oriented countries for molds. Domestic production is unable to fill the market demand for large-scale molds and relies on imports. An analysis of the 2009 Import and Export Country Reports shows that most of the countries are neighboring countries, but unusually, Japan exports molds mainly to the U.S. and is turning its attention to mainland China due to the rapid growth of the Chinese economy.

In terms of salaries, according to the 2009 White Paper on the mold industry published by the U.S. Foreign Trade Council, German engineers are highly paid, followed by Japan and the U.S., and less by mainland China. Obviously, there is a big gap between mainland China and other countries in terms of labor cost.

2. Strengths and weaknesses of each country's mold industry

Japanese mold makers focus on polishing and grinding, while German mold makers focus more on efficiency and precision to save processing time. In the market, the Japanese mold industry has seen a significant drop in production or domestic demand. In terms of operating costs, faced with high wages and benefits, downstream industries and mold makers have gradually shifted their production bases to neighboring emerging industrial parks and underdeveloped countries in order to reduce labor costs and enhance price competitiveness. However, this will inevitably lead to technology leasing and stimulate these countries to invest more development capital and expand processing and design technology gas.

Compared with the above mentioned countries, mainland China and South Korea lack technology, but have a large amount of cheap labor, which makes their products more competitive in the market.

3.Conclusion

Mold manufacturing companies in general are dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result, they often encounter difficulties in charging operating costs, and it is difficult for them to remain strong without the support of the government and tax incentives. Except for Mainland China and South Korea, all other countries are facing the problem of high labor cost, and the way to solve this problem is to increase the added value of their products.