Injection mold tooling is the mother of industry, that’s also being said, nowadays none of industry can live without an injection mold tool. You can see how important a mold tooling is!
However less workers prefer to work in the mold tooling and plastic injection molding industries, as its work environment is relatively poor and boring compared to office work or other job. Particularly fewer young people want to work in the mold tooling shop.
According to global manufacturing statistics, China, United State, Japan, Germany, Korea, Italy are the top six mold manufacturing countries in the world. Here below we would like to talk about the reality of global mold makers.
The reality of mold manufacturing companies in USA, Japan, and Germany:
- The scale of mold manufacturing factories are relatively small in the USA, Japan, and Germany. 80% of them are grouped with under 10 employees. 10%~20% of them have mold makers of 20~50 people. Among them, all of mold makers are very professional on particular mold making process. For instance, a mold polish operators might have decades or more experience, because of this expertise, they can work out excellent mold quality than others.
- Professionally focus on particular industries. Unlike Asian mold manufacturers, most of Western mold manufacturing companies focus on their business on automotive, electronics, or medical industries. Because of professionalism, those companies can accumulate rich experience and improve their competition a lot.
On the other hand, Western mold manufacturers have very steady mold making supply chain, like mold base, mold steel, hot runner, and other mold accessories.
- Advanced and integrated mold making management system. Starting from mold design, mold manufacturing, quality inspection, warehouse, to statistics, all of big and medium size mold manufacturers in USA, Japan, or Germany have already built very matured CAD-aided management. All of production information can be instantly accessible via internet, which is convenient for interior work process and management, as well as for customers to check out their mold status.
- Modernized and Standardized Process As we know, most of Asia mold manufacturers(like China, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc) mostly reply on skillful mold makers to fit molds, however Western mold making companies use standardized mold making process by advanced equipment and system. All of mold components are made accurately as standard parts, and any level of mold makers can assemble and fit the mold easily, instead of relying on experienced mold master.
Mold Manufacturers in USA
According to statistics, there are about 7,000 mold making companies, among of them, 60% of them have only 15 employees, and 30% of them have 15~50 employees. Because of a long history of mold technology development, US mold making industry has play a leading role of mold making in the world.
Meanwhile United Stated mold manufacturers have very matured market, nearly every mold making company has their own expertise. For example, Ford’s may has lots of mold suppliers at the mean time. Supplier A might focus on bumper, Supplier B might be expertise on doors or interior parts, so on. In this way, all of those mold manufacturers have their own competition and experience on each filed.
How About Mold Industry in Japan?
It’s approximately estimated that there are 10,000 mold manufacturers in Japan, among of them, 90% of them are as smaller as under 20 of employees, that’s also being said, nearly all of Japanese mold companies are small and medium size. However they are dedicating for very precision and high quality mold tooling. Because all of Japanese mold makers have professional mold manufacturing process, all of mold makers are experts on each process. For example, a mold polish employee has been working at mold polish role for over 30 years or even 50 years. This is incredible and unbelievable. Because this expertise experience, Japanese mold manufacturers can produce top high quality molds than others. Certainly Japanese mold companies have a big market share in the world.
Because of the competition from China and Korea, Japanese mold manufacturers are facing a big price challenge for low and medium complexity mold market. This is also why Japanese mold manufacturers aims to focus on high precision, durable, and complex injection mold.
More and more Japanese mold companies are invested high precision mold making equipment.
How About Mold Companies in Germany?
As we know, Germany is one of the earlier European country that engaged in mold manufacturing technology, its reputable quality and technicians are positively accepted by global clients. There is a common sense that German mold manufacturer is one of the top mold supplier in the world. In the global competitive market, German mold manufacturers have been playing an leading role in the global mold industry.
According to German VDMA statistics, there are 5000 mold manufacturers in Germany. But most of German mold companies are small or medium size, as 80% of them are organized under 20 employees, and 20% of them are grouped with 20~100 employees.
Mold Making Companies in China
China is one of the latter mold manufacturing region in the world. As the mold making technology started in 1980’s in China. However after 40 years development, the mold manufacturing technology in China has a great improvement, which make medium or high level of mold tooling. Nowadays Chinese mold manufacturers make 40%~50% of mold tools in the world.
In China, there are over 50,000 mold manufacturers that ranges from 10 employees to 500 employees. The are mainly located in Guangdong and Zhejiang regions. (like Shenzhen, DongGuang, Ningbo, etc) They delivers durable, low cost, and low & medium complexity mold tools. Because of Chinese mold makers are hard work and enthusiastic, many foreign companies would like to find a Chinese mold supplier for a partner.
