Tooling in China

In the past years, China has evolved to become the largest consumer of plastics while simultaneously becoming the biggest producer of injection molds. Due to the large number of companies manufacturing injection molds, the Chinese market has a large potential for acquiring these molds. However, the Chinese tool market remains very non-transparent and both the capabilities and structures of the companies are relatively heterogeneous. Hence, in order to successfully acquire molds in China, the Chinese tool and die industry first needs to be thoroughly studied to build reliable long-term partnerships. The prsent study gives an overview of the business environment in China, the offered molds, the process design as well as the resources available and the organizational structure of Chinese injection mold manufacturers.