Sino-Japanese mold industry chain competition in full swing

China has rapidly grown to be the world’s third largest mold-manufacturing country. However, some weaknesses in the overall industry chain may cause China’s molds to be locked at the low end of the industry. After 20 years of chasing, the Chinese mold industry is at a critical point, and the model of customer relationship among mold companies will exert decisive influence. Japanese mold companies are constantly eroding the market share of Chinese mold companies through joint ventures with mold users. At the end of 2005, a documentary titled "Sino-Japanese Competitions - Attacks and Defences of Manufacturing Craftsmen" caused a strong response in Japan, which described the impact of the Japanese mold industry on the rise of "Made in China". , as well as measures that Japanese mold makers respond to. Feedback from the film industry in Japan caused the Japanese counterparts to compare their precision connectors and semiconductor production technology. It is widely believed that Japan’s level has lagged behind its Chinese counterparts. Luo Baihui, a senior commentator in the mold industry, pointed out that the mold industry is the foundation of the manufacturing industry. The attitude of China and Japan to the mold industry determines the future of manufacturing in both countries. If this is the case, how will this development, which is related to the foundation of manufacturing, develop? What will happen to the future of "Made in China"?

Chinese molds catch up with Japan's 2005 Ota Ward in Tokyo is one of Japan's important gathering places for small and medium-sized mold companies. Now, the larger factories in the Ota district have moved to China to take advantage of the much cheaper local labor force. By 2007, the signs of industrial hollowing began to show up. More than a third of the enterprises in the region were affected by cheap Chinese labor and had to choose to suspend production or simply close down. Many closed factories now become sites for real estate development. The decline of these Japanese mold industries is precisely due to the fact that Japanese mold-consuming companies have turned to China to buy inexpensive Chinese molds. According to statistics, since the peak of 1,870 billion yen in 1998, the sales volume of the Japanese mold industry has continued to decline. This number was only 410 billion yen in 2006, which was a little more than one-fifth of 1998.

In addition, compared with the peak period, the number of mold manufacturers in Japan decreased by approximately 8.5% in 2006, the number of employees decreased by approximately 30%, and the rate of decline in output value reached 11%. The dilemma of the mold company in Ota-ku, Tokyo is a vivid reflection of the status of the Japanese mold industry. In stark contrast to Japan, the Chinese mold industry has experienced unprecedented rapid growth since 20 years ago. Among them, between 1996 and 2002, the output value of China's mold manufacturing industry grew by an average of 14% annually. In 2003, this figure reached an astonishing 25%. The year-on-year growth rate of China's mold output value reached 44% in 2011, which is unique in the world. In the eastern coastal areas, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, dense mold companies have formed numerous enterprise clusters. Most of these companies have imported high-grade tooling special-purpose machine tools, spacious factories and hard-working employees. Compared with their Japanese counterparts, China's mold factories are not worried about not getting orders but fearing too many orders. Although the absolute output value of the mold industry is not large, due to its special position in the product manufacturing system, the mold industry has the ability to determine the overall level of the manufacturing industry.

Moulds are essential for modern industry, especially automotive, aerospace, electronics, electrical appliances, instruments, instruments, weapons, daily necessities, and so on. 8 to 90% of the parts produced by these industrial sectors rely on dies. shaped. Die technology directly controls the development of the manufacturing industry, product replacement capabilities and competitiveness. According to Luo Baihui, the proportion of mold driven related industries is about 1:100, that is, mold development is 100 million yuan, which can drive related industries to 10 billion yuan. Based on this ratio, the output value of relevant industries driven by China's molds in 2011 was as high as 13 trillion yuan. Such a large driving capacity has given the mold industry a cornerstone in modern industry. In the United States, the mold industry is considered to be "the cornerstone of American industry." In Japan, the mold industry is even more highly valued as "the driving force behind entering the wealthy society." If you want to understand the manufacturing level and development potential of a country, it is a good choice to study the level of mold manufacturing. For countries such as Japan, where natural resources are severely deficient, human creativity is the only resource. Only by relying on people to continuously create new products, Japan can survive and develop in this era of globalization. In this sense, it is appropriate to call manufacturing Japan the foundation of Japan. It is because of this that the prosperity of the Chinese mold industry will only stimulate the nerves of the Japanese industry. If China, with its abundant resources, has mastered the essence of manufacturing and can continue to sublimate it, the foundation of Japan’s survival will be shaken. Japanese manufacturing confidants? In response to threats from China, Japanese mold companies rack their brains. Due to its technical advantages, it has become a common consensus that the high, refined, and sharp technical characteristics of Japanese mold companies can be fully utilized. Professor Hashimoto Hiroki of the Japan Policy Research Institute believes that in general, Chinese molds are “1/3 cost, 1/2 quality” compared to Japanese molds. In other words, depending on the quality requirements, some users will be satisfied with "1/3 of the cost, 1/2 of the quality" and the other will not. This is the basis for the self-confidence of the Japanese mold industry in the face of competition from its Chinese counterparts. In competition with Chinese mold companies, Japanese companies have spared no effort to enhance their competitive advantage in the high-end mold industry.

First, strictly control the links that may cause the outflow of intellectual property rights, such as personally maintaining products that are distributed all over the world, and avoiding the risks that may be caused by handing over drawings to users.

Second, shifting to areas with cheap labor in China and Southeast Asia, and strengthening the cost competitiveness of Japanese molds by using local labor.

Finally, and most importantly, it is to increase the competitive advantage that Japanese mold companies have in the high-end mold market. Due to the high frequency of replacement of modern products, high demands are placed on mold design and processing technology. The competition focus of the mold industry has gradually shifted to mold design, process innovation, and standardization. Japan's mold companies have accumulated rich experience and High-quality human resources have enabled it to continuously strengthen its competitive advantage in these areas. In addition, many Japanese mold users have completely passed over high-end molds to Japan. Taking advantage of the fact that the overall technical level of the Chinese mold industry is still at a relatively low level, Japanese mold companies are starting to compete tit-for-tat.

However, the competition between mold enterprises in China and Japan is not confined to the industry, and competition in the entire industry chain is in full swing.

Competition in the entire industry chain It is reported that the Japanese mold makers generally believe that foreign mold companies may be able to learn Japanese mold manufacturing technology, but they cannot imitate Japanese manufacturers, molders and molders, and material manufacturers to closely cooperate in the development of product manufacturing. system. In their view, this "product manufacturing culture" is the unique competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing.

It is not difficult to find that the above statement is indeed quite persuasive when we carefully examine the middle and lower reaches of the mold industry chain in the Chinese market. In the mold steel industry, the Japanese companies such as “Datong Special Steel” and “Hitachi Metal” occupy a near-monopoly position. Many Chinese mold companies’ external promotional materials are marked with special reference to the two major Japanese brands. Special steel. In order to meet the needs of the strong development of the Chinese mold market, Datong and Hitachi have set up many “divisions” in China. With the accelerated growth of the mold industry, China's demand for mold steel has also grown rapidly. In recent years, only 10,000 mold manufacturing enterprises in East China have consumed more than 500,000 tons of mold steel annually, and the demand is still growing. In contrast, China-made mold steel is difficult to meet the rapid development of the mold industry, mold companies have to choose to import steel. Although the imported steel is generally 4 to 5 times more expensive than the domestic steel, there is no choice for the domestic mold enterprises to have the quality of the mold.

The similar situation with die steel also exists in the field of die copper. In the field of die materials, these two materials are very representative. Looking in detail at the membership list of the Japan Copper Association, it is not difficult to find that the vast majority of member companies have established subsidiaries in China to produce copper materials locally. Among them, a considerable number of member companies have close ties with Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, the three largest consortiums in Japan. In terms of funds, shares, etc., most of these member companies have a consortium background. In this way, under the coordination of the consortium, Japan's copper-making companies will establish close links with downstream mold companies in terms of business and organization.

Upstream of the mold industry mainly involves two industries, namely materials and tooling tools. In the field of mold processing tools, as in the materials field, the external dependence of Chinese mold companies is also very serious. The level of China's mold production process equipment is low, and the demand for advanced processing tools in recent years is very urgent. The ratio of fixed assets investment and mold output value growth in the mold industry averages 1:1.2 in the industry. If the mold industry sales increase by 40 billion yuan, it also means that the demand for mold processing equipment has reached 50 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that this demand will continue for a long time. Since Japan is one of the most important producers of mold processing tools, the revitalization of the Chinese mold industry has also brought considerable benefits to these Japanese companies.