Asia’s injection mold industry leading the growth

Asia’s injection mold industry continues to grow, despite some order is going back to North American, it indicate that the change of type which American buying from Asia.

The global mold making industry grew 22 percent globally from 2011 to 2013, with the majority of that growth coming from Asia, which mold industry increased by 33 percent. Analyst Laurie Harbour said at the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City.

Harbour has previously discussed how rising costs and lead time constraints can drive reshoring of tools from Asia. The question is why that’s not represented in the data.

"If lead time is really tight and needs to be made quickly, it's not going to go to China. There's no time. The more cost increases in China, not just labor rates but costs in general — transportation, energy especially for large tools," she said.

But for simple tools where engineering changes and lead time constraints are not an issue, the low initial pricing available in Asia make sourcing tools from the region an attractive option. That is likely what’s driving Asia’s growth, Harbour said.

Harbour predicts the injection mold maker industry will grow another 12 percent in 2014. As the 2013 tooling capacity study she released, Harbour believes the tooling industry faces a pending tooling capacity gap, and new data collected by her firm confirms that, she said.