Since 1997, the country has successively listed molds and their processing technologies and equipment into the Catalogue of Industries, Products, and Technologies that the State is currently Encouraging to Develop, and the Catalogue of Industries Encouraged by Foreign Investment, and has added value to some key professional mold factories. Preferential policies for tax return; In 1999, the state included the related mold technology and products in the "Guidelines (Catalogues) of Current High-tech Industrialization Priorities for Priority Development by the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The above measures have strongly promoted the rapid development of China's mold industry.

1) Rapid growth in total mold industry

In 2005, the total output value of China's mold industry has leapt to the third place in the world, reaching 61 billion yuan. In 2006, the total output value of the mold industry reached 72 billion. The total output value of China's mold industry (average annual growth rate of 16% or more), the number of enterprises, the number of employees, and the total labor productivity are increasing year by year.

2) The proportion of imports and exports has become more reasonable, but it is still a country with a large net import volume in the world of mold.

The increase in imports of mold products in China has been declining year by year. Exports have been increasing year by year. The ratio of imports and exports has dropped from 6.6:1 in 1999 to 2:1 in 2006. Export molds are still mainly medium and low, while imported molds are mainly medium-to-high grade. The main gaps are focused on precision, large-scale, complex, long-life, high-tech molds.

3) The level of technology continues to increase, but there is still a large gap compared with foreign countries.

During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's mold technology has developed rapidly. At present, China has been able to produce precision multi-position progressive die with an accuracy of 2 micrometers and has a life of 1 to 200 million times. In the area of ​​large-scale plastic molds, it has now been able to produce molded plastic molds for 48-inch TVs, plastic molds for large-capacity washing machines, and molds for car bumpers and overall instrument panels. In the field of precision plastic molds, it has been able to produce camera plastic molds, multi-cavity small module gear molds, and plastic molds. In the area of ​​large-scale sophisticated die-casting molds, it has been able to produce escalator integrated pedal pressure die castings and automobile rear axle gearbox die casting molds. However, compared with foreign countries, there is still a large gap. The precision and complex stamping dies and plastic molds, car cover molds, electronic connectors and other electronic product molds urgently needed in China's manufacturing industry still rely heavily on imports.

Brief introduction of main mold production in China

The major mold production bases in China are in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Anhui.

1) Main provinces and cities and their features

Guangdong - the leading domestic mold market, three-funded enterprises as the main

Guangdong Province has more than 10,000 mold manufacturing companies and employs 300,000 people. The number of companies, employees, completed industrial output value and total export value rank first in the country. Guangdong is the most important mold market in China today, and it is also the largest mold export and import province in China. More than 40% of the nation's mold production value comes from Guangdong, and the CNC processing rate of mold processing equipment and the performance of the equipment, mold processing technology, and the level of production specialization and standards lead the domestic other provinces and cities.

Zhejiang - Larger proportion of plastic molds and private enterprises

Zhejiang's mold industry is mainly concentrated in Ningbo and Taizhou. Ningbo's Ninghai, Yuyao, Cixi and Cangzhou mainly produce plastic moulds, Beilun is mainly die-casting moulds, and Xiangshan and Zhoushan are mainly cast and stamping moulds. Taizhou’s major mold manufacturing companies are concentrated in Huangyan and Luqiao, with plastic molds accounting for the majority.

Shanghai - The Information Industry and the Automotive Industry Die-led

There are more than 2,000 mold enterprises in Shanghai and more than 100,000 employees. The annual production value is nearly 6 billion yuan, and the average annual growth rate exceeds 20%. Shanghai mold industry will face six major industries and key industries, especially the information (IT) industry and the automotive industry. It will vigorously develop the precision magnesium alloy die casting molds, precision injection molds for the IT industry, cover molds for the automotive industry, and die casting for large parts. Precision stamping parts multi-position progressive die.

Jiangsu—Foreign and Private Enterprises Are the Main Forces

Jiangsu molds are mainly concentrated in Suzhou and Kunshan. Suzhou currently has more than 1,000 various types of mold factories, mold processing more than 1,000 points, mold sales of about 5 billion to 6 billion, mold industry has become one of the city's emerging industries. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and Taiwan, Hong Kong, China have many wholly-owned and joint ventures, and there are also many private mold companies.

Anhui - rising new force

At present, Anhui Province has a number of well-known domestic mold products, such as washing machines, air conditioners and other large injection mold, refrigerator plastic foam mold, motor stator and rotor laminated high-speed progressive die, etc., some market share up to 30 %the above. Mold standard parts and mold material bases have also been formed.

In addition, the development of Shandong, Fujian, Tianjin, Liaoning, Chongqing and Hebei in recent years is also relatively good.

2) Geographical distribution of the company's annual output value over 100 million yuan

During the "10th Five-Year Plan" period, the Pearl River Delta region first, followed by the Yangtze River Delta region, and then the Bohai Rim region. Currently, about 80% of the country's molds are concentrated in these three regions.

According to Luo Baihui, the mould enterprises that currently have a mold output value of over 100 million yuan nationwide are mainly concentrated in the automotive panel mold field. "Eleventh Five-Year" period of various types of mold "leading" enterprises gradually formed. For example: FAW Mould Manufacturing Co., Ltd. for automobile panel molds, Wuxi Guosheng Precision Mold Co., Ltd. for precision stamping molds, Haier Molding Company for large-scale plastic molds, and Tongling Sanjia Technology Co., Ltd. for plastic profile molds (Mould No. One), rubber tire molds in the Guangdong giant wheel mold Co., Ltd. and Jieyang Hao Tianyang Mold Co., Ltd., mold standard parts of the Hong Kong Lung Kee Group and Panqi Industry (Dalian) Co., Ltd. and so on. In the billions of dollars in mold enterprises, foreign capital accounts for a considerable proportion.

Existing Problems in China's Mold Industry

In recent years, the structure of China's mold industry, whether it is corporate organizational structure, product structure, technological structure, or import and export structure, has been moving toward rationalization. In order to update and improve the level of equipment, mold companies need to import several billion yuan of equipment every year. Luo Baihui believes that the investment in innovation and development is still insufficient. The improvement of comprehensive R&D capabilities in the mold industry has lagged behind the improvement of production capacity. The main problems are reflected in the following aspects.

1) Weak innovation ability;

2) The overall efficiency is low;

3) Low degree of specialization, standardization, commercialization, and poor cooperation;

4) The backward technology of mold materials and molds;

5) The organizational structure, product structure, technical structure, and import and export structure of the company are not reasonable;

6) Compared with the international advanced level, the management of mold companies is even worse than the backward technology.

China's mold industry development trend

In the next ten years, the development trend of China's mold industry is: mold products are developing towards large-scale, precise, complex, economical, and rapid development; the technological content of molds is continuously improving, and the mold manufacturing cycle is continuously shortened; the mold production is toward information and has no plans. In the direction of development, refinement and automation, mold companies are developing in the direction of technology integration, equipment excellence, product branding, management informatization, and business internationalization.

The development of mold technology focuses on the following aspects.

1) The mold structure is becoming larger, more sophisticated, more complex, and more durable;

2) Wide application of CAD/CAE/CAM technology in mold design and manufacturing;

3) The promotion and application of new technologies in mold design and manufacturing;

4) Improve the level of mold standardization and the use of mold standard parts;

5) Develop high-quality mold materials and advanced surface treatment technologies;

6) Develop new processes and new molds to develop new ideas and new models.