China remains the world’s manufacturing megalith, where the die and mold industry plays a crucial role in the country’s manufacturing. Over the past two decades, on average, the industry grew by more than 10% per year. In 2021 China’s GDP grew to $17.72 trillion, an increase of 8.1% YOY. Manufacturing accounted for 27.4% of this at almost $5 trillion and represents almost 30% of the world’s manufacturing output. The die and mold industry is a major upstream component of manufacturing output, and opportunities in that space continue to grow.
There are over 30,000 die and mold companies in China. More than 80% of their business comes from the automotive, communications, electronics, appliance, and medical sectors. The rapid growth of those sectors resulted in a total output of $43.41 billion for die and mold in 2020.
According to the China Die & Mold Industry Association (CDMIA), plastic injection molds and automotive molds are the main products in the mold industry. Plastic mold output is 45% of the total output, stamping-punching molds represent 37%, casting molds 9%, and other molds 9%.
By application, automotive (34%), electronics (28%), and IT (12%) are the top three consumption segments of the total output for dies and molds. The appliance segment consumes 9%, OA 4%, semi-conductor 4%, and other molds 9%.
Dies and molds are a critical industrial upstream product. China's current mold industry is developing rapidly based on its industry added value. It is estimated that the output of China’s die and molds market will reach about $54 billion by 2026, with an average CAGR of almost 4%.
Some of the major automotive die and mold companies are:
o FAW Molds in Jilin province (Northeast China)
o Tianjin Motor Dies in Tianjin (North China)
o Greatoo Intelligent in Guangdong province (South China)
o Himile Mechanical Science & Technology in Shandong province (East China)
o Rayhoo Motor Dies in Anhui province (East China)
o BYD (Build Your Dream) Molds in Guangdong province (South China)
o Chengfei Integration Technology in Sichuan province (Southwest China)
Lightweight automotive components is a trend and is accelerating the development of technologies for plastic injection molds, stamping molds, and press-casting molds. Many companies are planning investments, such as BYD Molds, who will invest $47 million to build a stamping mold production center for EV parts at their Shaoguan facility in Guangdong province over the next two years.
For more information, please contact Fred Qian at fredqian@AMTchina.org.
