From the beginning to the present, China's mold industry has gone through more than half a century. The mold processing industry is maturing and the level of technology is continuously improving. The quantity and quality of mold enterprises are increasing year by year, and their influence and competitiveness on the world stage are also expanding year by year.

With the adoption of the system reforms in the mold industry and the adoption of new technologies and new processes, mold production in China has developed a lot. According to relevant data, mold sales amounted to 180 billion yuan in 2012, among which were automobiles, household appliances, and motorcycles. It is the largest market for molds in China and accounts for over 80% of the entire mold market share.

Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Model Association, stated that China's molds have increasingly attracted the attention and attention of all countries in the world, and in some respects have threatened developed countries such as Europe and the United States. For example, in the automotive mold field, they are still respected in large-scale automotive panel molds. There is a gap, but it is already a threat to the skeleton.

The strength of China's mold manufacturers is "variety." The president of a Japanese mold maker who is familiar with the situation of Chinese mold manufacturers warned: “There are quite a few Chinese companies that have taken samples with good accuracy, but mass production molds are completely inaccurate. More seriously, some Although Chinese manufacturers have the most advanced machine tools and say that they can 'manufacture with accuracy exceeding that of Japanese manufacturers', in reality, this is just a publicity slogan. After receiving the deposit, they will confuse it with 'not possible'.

However, Luo Baihui pointed out that the rapid development of the manufacturing industry represents the rapid progress of a country’s industrialization process and represents a period of rapid rise in the country’s overall national strength. The development of manufacturing industry is a necessary preparation for a country to enter the tertiary industry, which is the dominant developed country. Entering developed countries is the inevitable result of the highly developed manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing industry shifts to provide power to Chinese molds

With the continuous improvement of China’s economic status and the continuous development of China's hardware industry, China’s hardware products are also increasingly exported to other countries. The increase in overseas demand has directly driven the increase in the output of China's domestic mold enterprises. Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Model Association, believes that at present, China's hardware molds have formed a large economic scale, but due to the improvement of development methods, industrial structure, independent innovation, and brand building, domestic demand will be boosted, which will lead to strong and powerful radiation effects. As the key industries for the development of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, basic parts such as precision molds strive to bring them to or near the international advanced level.

Under the guidance of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", China's high-end precision mold industry has formulated an industry development plan. It has formulated a policy of stimulating the development of the domestic mold industry with domestic sales and exports. Driven by various developments in rail transit, medical equipment, new energy, aerospace, automotive lightweighting, and rail transit, the level of China's mold manufacturing industry has been significantly improved. The mold industry has been steadily advancing in the traditional market while actively exploring emerging markets. Even marginal markets that were neglected in the past have also been developed. These factors have enabled the mold market to achieve remarkable results.

The shift of global manufacturing focus to China has provided a strong impetus for the development of China's mold manufacturing industry, and it has also raised higher and higher requirements for domestic high-end precision mold manufacturers. Luo Baihui proposed that China's mold industry must focus on improving product quality and reducing manufacturing costs, and realize a strategic shift from "big" to "strong."

Slowdown in manufacturing industry slowdown in machine tool market growth of 10%

With the deepening effects of the global economic crisis gradually expanding, global manufacturing growth in the third quarter of 2012 was only 2.2%, and the economy will continue to weaken in 2013.

The relevant UN report pointed out that the new round of economic recession in Europe and North America has dragged the global manufacturing recovery. In the third quarter of 2012, global manufacturing increased by 2.2% year-on-year, and its growth rate was the lowest since 2009. In particular, the continued economic recession in Europe and the slowdown in economic growth in developing countries, the economically developed countries as a whole have experienced the first decline in industrial output since 2009; Germany’s decline was 1.7%, Italy’s 6.2%, and France’s 1.9%, the United Kingdom was 0.9%, Japan's manufacturing output fell 4.6%.

While the manufacturing growth of all major economies in the world has slowed or declined, the development of related industries still maintains a relatively high growth rate. According to relevant data, the size of the international machine tool market has more than doubled in 20 years, reaching around US$86 billion in 2011. Since the turn of the century, the annual consumption of machine tools has increased by an average of nearly 10% (in U.S. dollars).

The growth of the machine tool industry is undoubtedly affected by factors such as the automation of the industrial manufacturing industry and high quality and high transformation factors. Especially in the Asian region, three-fifths of the international machine tool production in 2011 has flowed into the region. It can be said that the main driving force for growth comes from Asia.

Strong competition in the manufacturing sector, companies need to make breakthroughs

China's valve industry is developing rapidly, but in the context of a good industrial situation, some issues are also worth worrying about, especially the domestic valve companies are mainly low-level, small-scale, family workshop-based enterprises. This is a big limitation and bottleneck for the future development of China's valve industry. At present, some enterprises that produce valves in China have reached the international advanced level. Although the overall level of China's valve industry has been greatly improved, but the quality is still not stable enough, such as run, run, drip, leakage phenomenon often occurs in domestic valves. In addition, there is still a certain gap between China's valve supporting capabilities and developed countries.

The competition in the valve market is becoming more and more intense, and some ordinary valve product markets have become saturated and there is a situation where supply exceeds demand. This makes the development of SMEs more and more difficult. Even the products with relatively high technological content compete fiercely in the international market. At present, China has been able to provide a variety of products in the valve market: for example, heating valves, valves for environmental protection, and valves for construction. However, in the field of high pressure valves still rely on imports, this is the future of China's valves need to make breakthroughs in the field, in order to truly promote the development of China's valve industry.

The research of the gold mold power grid shows that since 2012, the localization of high-end valves has become very difficult. The current basic parts have become a shortcoming that restricts the development of domestic manufacturing to high-end development. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China will further increase the localization of high-end equipment components. Substitution of China's sub-sectors in the feasibility of valve import substitution is very different, high-end valves need more policy guidance and research support, the future of the domestic valve industry presents a good development prospects.

Manufacturing base rises in inland provinces

The tide of factory outflows in the Pearl River Delta has prompted some people to question whether China can maintain its status as a “world factory”. In this regard, Luo Baihui believes that even if the Pearl River Delta loses its prominence, China will continue to play a role as a manufacturing center, thanks to the rise of new manufacturing bases in inland provinces.

The current labor costs and RMB exchange rate increase, many manufacturing companies have been transferred to Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries. As a result, China will still be the world's largest manufacturing country, but its importance as a factory in the world will be reduced, but inland cities such as Chongqing will become emerging manufacturing centers to make up for the declining influence of the Pearl River Delta. This is because inland cities have lower production and land costs than coastal areas. “Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu will become important manufacturing centers. These cities will ensure that China continues to be an important manufacturing base,” said Luo Baihui.

According to a report released by the Boston Consulting Group, some manufacturing companies in China will return to the United States by 2015, because China’s cost advantage will be weakened. "Although China will continue to be an important manufacturing platform in Asia and Europe, the United States will become an increasingly attractive production site for many North American consumers."

Zheng Huiyou, president of the Hong Kong Logistics Association, said that he does not think that factories will move from China to the United States. “U.S. labor costs are higher than in Hong Kong. China will continue to be an important manufacturing base for high-value products such as iPad tablets because it can meet high quality requirements. Other Asian countries have lower costs but may not meet quality requirements. ".

Other stakeholders believe that in the next five years, only a small number of manufacturing companies in China will move to the United States.