Nowadays, the number of mold enterprises is gradually increasing, and requirements for molds in many industries are becoming increasingly demanding. As a result, the precision mold industry is booming. With the vigorous development of the electronic information industry and the informatization transformation of traditional industries, the plastic mold market enjoys broad prospects, and the global high-end and precision plastic mold market is in short supply.
In recent years, China’s plastic mold manufacturing level has been greatly improved. The weight of a single set of large-scale plastic molds has reached more than 50 tons, the precision of precision plastic molds has reached 3 microns, and in multi-cavity plastic molds, we can produce plastic packaging molds with 7,800 cavities per mold. In terms of high-speed molds, we can manufacture high-speed plastic profile extrusion molds with an extrusion speed of over 4 m/min and dual-cavity co-extrusion molds for main profiles.
With the rapid development of the plastics industry and the continuous improvement in the strength of general and engineering plastics, the application scope of plastic products is expanding, and the consumption of plastic products is also rising. It is known that China’s output of plastic products was close to 60 million tons in 2012 and continues to grow, indicating huge domestic demand as a strong driving force for China’s plastic mold industry.
According to the Ninghai Mould Association, since last year, the county has actively encouraged enterprises to upgrade technical equipment, vigorously promoted technological and product innovation, and guided qualified enterprises to expand from production to R&D and sales of high value-added molds. New progress has been made in large-scale injection mold manufacturing. The county is now capable of producing complete sets of large molds for 8kg twin-tub washing machines, automobile bumpers, integrated automotive dashboards, automotive interior parts, and 65-inch rear-projection TV housing molds.
Similar to the regional distribution of the national plastic processing industry, the plastic products processing industry in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta takes the lead. The output value of plastic molds in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong accounts for 70% of the national total mold output value. With the rapid development of China’s automotive, home appliance, electronics, telecommunications and building materials industries, the proportion of plastic molds in the total mold market is expected to keep rising, with a growth rate faster than other types of molds.
At present, plastic molds account for about 30% of the entire mold industry and as high as 50% to 70% in mold imports and exports. China’s plastic mold industry has developed rapidly in recent years. The increasingly wide application of plastic products has provided a vast market for plastic molds. China’s mold industry has a huge trading market, growing at an annual rate of 15% to 20%, mainly driven by major downstream industries such as automotive, home appliances, IT, packaging, building materials and daily necessities.
Affected by various national policies and continuous market expansion, industries such as automotive, IT and packaging have enjoyed rapid development momentum in recent years, with great progress not only in production capacity but also in the high-end sectors. Therefore, these industries have strong demand for molds at high, medium and low-end levels. According to relevant industry statistics, China’s output of plastic products was close to 60 million tons in 2012 and is still growing, showing that domestic demand provides enormous impetus to China’s mold industry.
The development of a product in the market is influenced by many factors. First is market demand; when a product is needed by the market, it has opportunities for development. Second is product quality; continuous innovation and improvement in quality and technology enhance product value and make it more popular in the market. The development of the plastics industry cannot be separated from molds. Therefore, the mold industry must persist in R&D and innovation to consolidate and improve its market position and sustain the high-speed development of the mold industry.