Low-grade plastic mold oversupply still needs a lot of imports

As a whole, Chinese plastic molds have made great progress in terms of quantity, quality, technology, and capability. However, compared with the needs of the national economy and the world's advanced level, there is still a big gap. Some large-scale, sophisticated, complex, long-life middle-to-high-grade plastic molds still need a lot of imports every year. While the total supply is in short supply, some low-grade plastic molds are oversupply and the market competition is fierce. There are also some mid-range plastic molds with low technical content that have oversupply.

Joining the WTO has brought great challenges to the plastic mold industry and brought more opportunities. As China's plastic molds are dominated by medium and low-grade products, the price advantage of the products is obvious, and some even only 1/5 to 1/3 of the foreign product prices. After joining the WTO, foreign similar products have little impact on the domestic market, while China's middle and low-grade molds The export volume increased; in terms of high-precision molds, before entering the WTO, it mainly relied on imports. After joining the WTO, it not only brought more convenience to the imports of sophisticated products, but also prompted more foreign capital to build in China. The factory brought advanced foreign mold technology and management experience and played a role in promoting the development of professional mold talents in China.

In 2006, the total output value of plastic molds in China was about 300 billion yuan, of which exports were about 5.8 billion yuan. According to customs statistics, in 2006 China imported a total of about 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of plastic molds, or about 8.3 billion yuan. It can be concluded that, in addition to self-produced, market sales, in 2006 China's total demand for plastic mold is about 31.3 billion ***, domestic mold supply is about 23 billion ***, market satisfaction rate is 73.5 %. The most imported plastic molds are all kinds of decorative molds for automobiles, various plastic molds for home appliances, various injection molds for communication and office equipment, and extrusion molds for building materials. Electronic industry supporting a variety of plastic molds. The export of plastic molds is dominated by medium and low-end products. Due to the low prices of plastic molds in China and the strong competitiveness in the international market, the prospects for further expansion of exports are very good. In recent years, the average annual growth of exports by more than 50% is a good testimony.

Although the increase in mold exports in recent years is greater than the increase in imports, the absolute increase in imports is still greater than exports, resulting in a year-on-year increase in mold foreign trade deficits. This situation has improved in 2006 and the deficit has slightly decreased. There are two main reasons for the increase in foreign trade deficits in molds: First, the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, especially the rapid development of the automotive industry has brought about a strong demand for molds, some high-grade molds do not produce, they have to import; but there are some Molds can be produced domestically and imported. This is related to China's current tariff policy and project approval system. The second is the lack of encouragement for export of molds. Now that molds are the same as other mechanical and electrical products, the export tax rebate rate is only 13%, but less than 17%.

Judging from market conditions, plastic mold manufacturing enterprises should focus on the development of large-scale, sophisticated, complex, long-life molds with high technological content, and vigorously develop the international market and develop export molds. With the rapid development of China's plastics industry, especially engineering plastics, it can be foreseen that the development speed of China's plastic molds will continue to be higher than the overall development speed of the mold industry, and the annual growth rate will remain at a level of about 20% in the coming years. In recent years, Hong Kong-owned, Taiwan-funded, and foreign-funded enterprises have developed rapidly in mainland China. There are no definitive statistical data on the self-produced plastic molds used in these enterprises, and thus they cannot be included in the above figures.

The development level and market trend of plastic mold In recent years, the level of plastic mold manufacturing in China has been greatly improved. Large plastic molds have been able to produce single sets of injection molds with weights over 50t. The accuracy of precision plastic molds has reached 2μm. Small module gear molds with high precision of parts and lamp molds for high optical requirements have also been produced. , Multi-cavity plastic mold has been able to produce a mold 7800 cavity plastic mold, high-speed mold has been able to produce extrusion speed up to 6m/min above the high-speed plastic profile extrusion die and main profile double cavity coextrusion, two-color coextrusion, Soft and hard co-extrusion, post-co-extrusion, co-extrusion of reclaimed material, and co-extrusion of low-expansion steel, plastic, and other molds.

In terms of production methods, the numerical control rate of mold equipment has been greatly improved. The application of CAD/CAE/CAM technology has been greatly expanded. More and more advanced technologies such as high-speed processing and RP/RT have been adopted. Mold standards The use rate of the parts and the commercialization rate of the molds have been greatly increased, and the proportion of hot runner molds has also been greatly improved. In addition, the vigorous development of foreign-funded enterprises has further promoted the improvement of the level of plastic mold design and manufacturing and the management level of enterprises. Some enterprises have already achieved information management and all-digital non-figure manufacturing.

After years of development, plastic mold development, innovation and corporate management have shown some new trends:

(1) In the four elements of mold quality, delivery cycle, price, and service, more and more users have placed the delivery cycle first. It is a trend that mold companies are required to deliver as soon as possible. Companies that do everything possible to improve their adaptability, raise their technological standards, improve their equipment levels, improve their management, and increase their efficiency are all effective means of shortening the production cycle of molds.
(2) Vigorously increase the development capacity, push the development work forward as far as possible, until it involves the product development of the mold user, even before the development of a clear user object, become passive and active. At present, televisions and display cases, air-conditioner housings, and motorcycles and other plastic parts have adopted this method, and mobile phone and telephone mold development has also begun to try. This practice has broken the long-term mold factory can only wait for a contract, according to the user's request for a passive design of mold design.
(3) With the improvement of the design and processing level of the mold enterprises, the manufacturing of the mold is changing from the skill of the fitter in the past to mainly relying on technology. This is not only a change in the means of production, but also a change in the mode of production and the rise of ideas. This trend has led to a continuous increase in the standardization of molds, higher and higher precision molds, shorter and shorter production cycles, and lower and lower proportion of fitters, which ultimately promoted the continuous improvement of the overall level of the mold industry. China's mold industry currently has more than 10 national high-tech enterprises and about 200 provincial and municipal high-tech enterprises. Adapting to this trend, it is an inevitable requirement that the main backbone forces for the production of molds be gradually transformed from technical talents to technical talents. Of course, at present and for a long period of time, technical talents are still very important, because after all, it is difficult for molds to completely get rid of their dependence on skills.
(4) Mould enterprises and their mold production are rapidly developing to information technology. In the information society, as a high-level modern mold and die enterprise, the application of CAD/CAM alone is not enough. At present, many companies have adopted technologies such as CAE, CAT, PDM, CAPP, KBE, KBS, RE, CIMS, and ERP, and other advanced manufacturing technologies and virtual networking technologies. These are the manifestations of informatization. The trend toward the development of information technology has become the industry consensus.
(5) With the continuous progress of human society, the mold will inevitably develop to a wider range of fields and at a higher level. Now, the mold enterprises that can grasp the opportunities and expand the market, constantly discover new growth points, and can produce high-tech mold companies are very prosperous, and profit levels and staff income are all very good. Therefore, mold companies should grasp this trend and continuously improve their overall quality and international competitiveness.
(6) Molds in developed industrial countries are accelerating their transfer to China. Their performance is as follows: First, relocating factories; second, investing; and third, purchasing. Chinese mold enterprises should seize the opportunity to borrow and learn advanced foreign technologies to accelerate their own pace of development.

The main problems existing There are mainly the following problems compared with the advanced level in China's plastic mold industry.

(1) Unbalanced development and low overall product quality. Although the products of individual companies have reached or approached the international advanced level, overall, the accuracy of molds, roughness of the cavity surface, production cycle, life expectancy and other indicators compared with the foreign advanced level there is still a wide gap. The overall level, including production methods and enterprise management, still has a gap of more than 10 years compared with foreign industrialized countries.
(2) The technological equipment is backward and the organization and coordination ability is poor. Although some enterprises have undergone technological transformation in recent years, the level of process equipment has been relatively advanced, and some of the three foreign-funded enterprises do not lag behind foreign countries in their level of equipment. However, the technological equipment of most enterprises is still relatively backward. What's more, the poor coordination ability of the enterprise organization makes it difficult to integrate or mobilize social resources for my own use, making it difficult to undertake relatively large projects.
(3) Most companies have weak development capabilities, and their ability to innovate is obviously insufficient. On the one hand, the proportion of technicians is low and the level is not high enough. On the other hand, less investment in scientific research and development; more importantly, the concept is backward and not enough attention is paid to innovation and development. Mold enterprises must not only pay attention to the development of molds, but also pay attention to product innovation.
(4) Contradiction between supply and demand is difficult to ease in the short term. In recent years, the satisfaction rate of domestic plastic molds in the domestic market has been less than 74%, of which the satisfaction rate of large-scale, precision, long-life molds is even lower, which is estimated to be less than 60%. At the same time, the molds of the industrialized countries are accelerating their transfer to China, and there are more and more international purchases. The prospects for the international market are promising. With strong market demand, it is difficult to keep up with the development of production for a time. The situation of supply exceeding demand will continue for some time.
(5) It will take time to resolve the system and talent issues. In the socialist market economy, competitive industries, especially those industries that rely on special users and require single-piece production, such as molds, have become increasingly unsuited to the original systems and operating mechanisms of state-owned and collective ownership. The quantity and quality of talent also cannot keep up with the rapid development of the industry.

During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, development prospects are driven by the development of informatization. Today, we must not only see achievements but also pay attention to backwardness. We must seize opportunities, take measures, and increase the speed of economic globalization as soon as possible. The level of plastic molds, integrated into the international market to promote the rapid development of China's mold industry, should be paid attention to in two aspects:

First, government-related policies play a very important role in promoting the development of the mold industry. From an international perspective, the mold industry in various countries has received strong support from the government in the early stages of development. In view of China's actual situation, we should reduce the tariffs on imports of precision mold production equipment that cannot be produced domestically, and implement the country's preferential policies for some professional mold factories. Through policy guidance, we can accelerate the development and progress of the industry.

Second, with the development of the market, plastic new materials and diversified forming methods will inevitably continue to develop in the future. Therefore, the requirements for molds are also increasing. In order to meet the needs of the market, the plastic molds of the future will surely develop rapidly regardless of variety, structure, performance, or processing, and this development must keep pace with the times. Looking ahead, the following trends are expected to be applied and promoted more quickly in the industry.

(1) Ultra-large, ultra-precision, long-life, high-efficiency molds will be developed.
(2) Molds with multiple materials, multiple colors, multi-layer and multi-cavity, and multiple molding methods will be developed.
(3) RP/RT technology, which combines rapid and economical molds, especially with rapid prototyping technology, will develop rapidly.
(4) Mold design, processing, and various managements will be developed in the direction of digitization and information technology. CAD/CAE/CAM/CAPP and PDM/PLM/ERP will be developed in the direction of intelligence, integration, and networking.
(5) All kinds of mold processing equipment with higher speed, higher precision, and more intelligence will be further developed and popularized.
(6) Higher performance and new materials for special applications The new materials will continue to evolve, with the consequent generation of special and more advanced processing methods.
(7) Various mold cavity surface treatment technologies, such as coating, repair, grinding and polishing, will also continue to develop.
(8) Reverse engineering, concurrent engineering, composite processing, and even virtual technology will be further developed.
(9) The hot runner technology will develop rapidly, gas auxiliary and other injection molding processes and molds will also develop.
(10) The degree of standardization of molds will continue to increase.
(11) In the day when sustainable development and green products are increasingly valued, the concept of “green mold” has gradually been put on the agenda. That is, in future molds, from the aspects of structural design, selection of raw materials, manufacturing process, mold repair and scrap, and recycling of molds, etc., they will increasingly consider saving resources, reusing, favoring environmental protection, and sustainable development. A trend.

During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, under the guidance of the scientific outlook on development, the domestic mold and die enterprises will further deepen reforms, make efforts to do a good job in scientific and technological advancement and innovation, adhere to the path of a new type of industrialization, and gradually shift the growth model of speed and efficiency to quality and level. With the benefit-oriented track, the mold industry will surely get a good and fast development.