Foreign capital close competition for local mold industry is in urgent need of upgrading

A few days ago at the China Mould Base Industry Upgrading Forum held in Huangyan, Zhejiang Province, relevant experts reminded that the new round of battles for the foreign mold giants to accelerate their entry into the Chinese market have been launched, and the local mold industry has been exposed to the crisis due to “congenitally insufficient”. In the "close competition" with foreign molds, it is imperative for the local mold industry to accelerate the upgrading of technology brands.

Foreign capital close competition for local mold industry is in urgent need of upgrading

In recent years, the transfer of mold enterprises in developed countries to China has accelerated. In May last year, Mitsui Fuji Automobile Mold Co., Ltd., which was established by Japan's automotive mold maker Fuji Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., was formally signed and settled in Yantai, Shandong Province; and Cole Asia and China Dongfeng Automobile Mold Co., Ltd. jointly established a joint venture. "Wuhan Dong Mould Standard Mould Standard Parts Co., Ltd.", Kohl Asia Company accounted for 63% of the shares. Last July, Japan's ab company engaged in mold manufacturing for the first time and China's Taiwan region personal computer peripheral equipment manufacturers went to Shanghai to build factories, telephone mold products. The international mold giant Finland Belrose Company invested and built the mold manufacturing plant. It was officially put into use not long ago. The plant was built in full compliance with European and American standards, and the first phase invested 60 million yuan, mainly providing high-end mold products for the telecommunications, healthcare, electronics and automotive industries. At the same time with testing and verification capabilities. Mold companies from the European Union, South Korea and Singapore have also organized groups to visit China and seek to enter the region and partners.

“Mold manufacturing is the first of all manufacturing, and is hailed as the “mother of industry.” In electronics, automobiles, motors, appliances, instruments, meters, home appliances, and communications products, 80% of parts and components rely on mold forming.” Luo Baihui, executive secretary of the International Mould and Hardware & Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, recently pointed out in the analysis report of the Ninghai Research Institute of Industry and Commerce of Zhejiang Vocational Technology Institute that the current manufacturing production base in the world is accelerating to China, and China's manufacturing industry is moving into the high-end upgrade. In the development stage, the demand for high-quality and precise molds will continue to increase. The giants of the developed countries followed the investment boom after the foreign molds entered China in the mid-1990s. The purpose was to seize the opportunities and to make our country's domestic mold industry face the "close-up challenge" of advanced foreign technologies and high-quality products. The production space will be squeezed. Luo Baihui said that foreign companies have set up branches in China, which is centered on China's low labor costs and cheap steel. The core technology is the secret that they are firmly in control. Advanced technology and financial strength, coupled with China’s labor force and cheap raw materials, have made its competitive advantage in the market steeper, while Chinese companies have increased the difficulty of upgrading their grades. At present, the precision and complex stamping dies and plastic molds, car cover molds, electronic connectors and other electronic product molds that are urgently needed in China's manufacturing industry still rely heavily on imports. The import and export deficit of mold products exceeds more than one billion US dollars.

As the mold industry is a relatively intensive industry with technology, capital, and labor, the average labor cost in China is only 1/40 to 1/30 of that of the United States. With the rapid development of China's economy, the level of China's technical personnel has also gradually increased, while the trend of shrinking plastic molds in industrialized countries has gradually accelerated, and these countries have also accelerated the transfer of their mold industry to countries with better industrial and technological foundations. At present, the areas surrounding Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta have become China's most advanced plastic mold industry and the highest technological content. In the next few years, with the acceleration of the global manufacturing industry's focus on China's central and western regions, this region may become a global mold manufacturing center within 10 years. In addition, the plastic mold industry in Yuyao, Ninghai, Huangyan and Wenzhou in the eastern part of Zhejiang Province is also developing very rapidly. The number of people has reached more than 100,000 people, and the annual output value of the mold is RMB 7 billion.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 30,000 mold manufacturing enterprises in the country, of which more than half are self-produced. At the same time, most of them are small-scale enterprises. In recent years, the pace of structural adjustment and institutional reform of the mold industry has accelerated, but the level of design and manufacturing has generally been a certain distance from industrialized countries. Mainly in:

1, industry innovation ability is weak

The mold industry is a technology-intensive and capital-intensive industry. With the progress of the times and the development of technology, talents who can master and use new technologies are in short supply. Advanced mold fitters and corporate management talents are also in short supply. Due to the poor efficiency of the mold enterprises and the lack of attention to scientific research and technological development, the mold industry as a whole has invested too little in research and development and technological research. The difficulties in the loans of private enterprises also affect the technological transformation of many enterprises, resulting in little progress in science and technology, and progress is not fast.

2, the overall efficiency of the industry is low

Although many domestic companies have adopted advanced processing equipment, the overall level of equipment is still much lower than that of foreign companies. In particular, equipment numerical control rates and CAD/CAM application coverage are much lower than those of foreign companies. Due to institutional and financial reasons, the introduction of equipment is not complete, equipment and accessories are not supporting the phenomenon is widespread, the problem of low utilization of the equipment can not be resolved for a long time.

The low level of equipment has brought problems such as too high a locksmith ratio in China's mold enterprises.

3. The level of specialization, standardization, commercialization is low, the level of standardization of molds with poor cooperation is low, and the use of standard parts with low coverage also has a great influence on the quality and cost of molds. In particular, it has a great influence on the mold manufacturing cycle.

4, mold material and mold related technology behind

The performance, quality, and variety of mold materials often affect mold quality, life, and cost. There is a large gap between domestic mold steels and imported steels. Poor performance of plastics, plates, equipment, etc., also directly affects the improvement of mold level.

Foreign-funded enterprises do not choose joint ventures because their core technologies do not want to evacuate. “Foreign-funded enterprises generally enter into two modes: First, they enter together with their supporting companies (ie, customers), which is characterized by professional services for a single customer, and a single mold type; the second is their own entry into China. Foreign investment mold companies invest in China, and its The purpose is to use China's cheap labor and cheap steel to earn more profits, according to Luo Baihui, in the foreign companies, the mold shop is a “secret workshop,” and outsiders can’t just come close to it. Funds, but also independent technology, do not need to be a joint venture with Chinese companies.They are just to reduce labor costs.And, they still design abroad, through the network to their business in China.

5, domestic self-provision rate is less than 80%. Among them, there is oversupply of middle and low-grade molds, and the self-ration rate of middle-to-high-grade molds is less than 60%.

6. The organizational structure, product structure, technical structure, and import and export structure of the company are not reasonable enough. Most of China's mold manufacturing plants are self-produced tooling workshops (branches), and most of the professional mold factories are "large and complete" and "small and complete". Most of the foreign mold enterprises are "small and special" and "small and fine"; the proportion of self-produced and self-made molds is as high as 50%, and 70% of foreign molds are commercial molds. The proportion of large-scale, sophisticated, complex and long-life molds in the total domestic molds is only about 30%. More than 50% abroad. The ratio of imports and exports was 4.1:1 in 2003; the net import after import and export was US$1.03 billion, which is the country with the largest net import volume.

7. The level of mold products and the level of production technology are generally much lower than the international advanced level, and the mold production cycle is much longer than the international advanced level. The low level of product is mainly reflected in the precision, cavity surface roughness, life and the complexity of the mold; the low level of technology is mainly reflected in design, processing, process equipment and so on.

8, weak development capabilities, poor economic efficiency. The proportion of technicians in China’s mold enterprises is relatively low, and the level is also low. Do not attach importance to product development, often in a passive position in the market. The average annual output of molds for each worker in our country is about 10,000 U.S. dollars, and most of the developed countries in the mold industry are 15-20 million U.S. dollars, and some even reach 25-30 million U.S. dollars. The result is that China's mold enterprises have poor economic returns, and most of them have low profits. The state-owned enterprises have suffered a total loss and lack of stamina.

9, mold standardization level and mold standard parts use coverage is low. The use rate of mold standard parts in foreign advanced countries is over 70%, and the coverage of domestic mold standard parts is only about 45%.

10. Compared with the international advanced level, the management of mold enterprises is even more backward than technology. The backwardness of technology is easily discovered, and management is backward and easily overlooked. Most of the domestic mold enterprises still use the workshop management mode in the past. Really realize modern enterprise management is not much.

Midwest becomes the first choice for mold transfer

The Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regions on the east coast are considered as “world manufacturing bases”. However, most of the industries are currently labor-intensive and are at the low end of the product value chain. R&D, design, marketing, and branding are weak. The lack of independent innovation capability mainly relies on low cost and low price to gain competitive advantage, and the homogeneity within and among industries is serious. Only by transferring some industries that are labor-intensive, resource-consuming, and environmentally-friendly, can high-tech and high-level enterprises have greater activity space and stronger factor supply security in their local areas, and accelerate the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. pace. According to Luo Baihui, executive secretary general of the International Mould, Hardware and Plastic Industry Suppliers Association, the shift from the related sub-sector industry is mainly labor-intensive and resource-intensive. The industries that have shifted outward from the eastern coastal areas are mainly upstream with strong dependence on resources and energy, such as labor-intensive toy plastic molds, shoe-making molds, and ceramic molds that consume more energy. As the most important source of industrial transfer in the Yangtze River Delta region, Shanghai has shifted mainly to the mold-related industries such as the rubber products industry, plastic products industry, machinery manufacturing industry, culture and sports goods manufacturing industry, and steel processing industry. The industries transferred from Jiangsu and Zhejiang are mainly mechanical manufacturing. The shift in the PRD region is mainly labor-intensive and low value-added manufacturing and processing companies, mainly in the hardware, toys, footwear, plastics, molds and other industries, especially Hong Kong-funded Taiwan-funded enterprises. Services and high-tech industries have also shown a shift.

Mold industry focus

The development of the mold industry and other industries can be described in terms of the lips and teeth, so the overall level of the mold industry is closely related to the development of related industries. At present, China’s mold products are mainly dominated by medium and low grades, and the technology content is relatively low. Most high-middle-range molds rely on imports. One reason is that the related industries lack core technologies.

1, semiconductor packaging mold automation

The requirements for molds in the semiconductor packaging mold industry are as follows: First, the molds are required to be finished. At present, electronic products are continuously integrated and miniaturized. The products tend to be high-end, the size is also getting smaller and smaller, and the package body is getting thinner. The higher the demand, the higher the precision of the mold.

2, the connector to the mold manufacturing industry demanding

As a port for transmitting signals, the connector has been widely used in various fields such as mobile phones, computers, program-controlled exchanges, and home appliances. At present, foreign manufacturers occupy the high-end connector market, and domestic manufacturers still dominate the low-end market. This part is affected by the level of the connector mold industry. Because the connector mold involves injection molding, terminal stamping, electroplating, etc., Guosheng mainly produces terminal stamping dies. The products include mobile phone SIM card terminal dies, computer CPU socket STOCK terminal dies, and electrical terminal dies.

3, equipment, standardization development to a higher level

In the field of mold standard parts, the standard mold parts with larger output in China are mainly die sets, guides, punches, etc., and oil guide plates and wedges for automobile molds. It is understood that at present, the coverage of the use of Chinese mold standard parts in the mold is only 40%, while in Europe and the United States and other countries it reached 70%. Luo Baihui pointed out that standardization has become a new trend in the development of the mold industry. The mold industry should expand the variety of mold standard parts, improve its accuracy, increase production concentration, and achieve large-scale production.