China Metal Tooling Exports May Exceed Japan

A few days ago, a Japanese media claim that, in the past Japan mold industry takes the leadership of the world, but now China has become a mold exporting superpower, threating the position of Japan mold industry. The statistics shows that the mould export of China is approaching Japan’s. Although the “Pure export” --the quantity which export minus import, Japan is twice of China, but there is some opinion says that China become the largest injection mold maker exporting country is only a matter of time.

The secret of China approaching Japan so quickly is the different manufacturing method. China implement line production via huge-crowd strategy, to make the mass production possible for mold making. In big scale mold factories of China, mold building are distinguished into different processes: design, machining, assembly, trial, correction etc. Japan’s molds are majorly built by small or medium scale factories. Among 8000 Japan mold factories, the small and micro factories with less than 10 staff. For 70% more. Japanese all-round mold makers constantly sharpen their skills, making the mould one by one, the work needs to be done by 10 persons in China can be done by only one in Japan.

The advantage of huge-crowd strategy is the workers can start work in a short time, but it also has lots of disadvantage such as a high employee turnover rate. The comment from the mould industry for the mold built in China is “ The price is 70% of Japan, and the quality is only 70% of Japan”. But China have begun the changes, more and more china injection mold manufacturer come to realize the importance of skillful employee, and there will be more factories introduce Japan manufacturing methods in the future.