In the last 10 years we have been involved with publications serving the plastics industry, the number of unique plants doing plastic injection molding has ranged from 10,000 to 14,000+ in the booming years in the China according to data collected from subscribers.
injection molding workshop
Not saying that is the universe, but it's likely reach to a high 90% of it. Currently, there are just over 11,000 plants doing plastic injection molding according to our circulation database with about 52% of those being custom injection molders and 48% captive or proprietary.
The precise number of custom injection molders has always been a bit elusive because almost half of plants are captive falling into end-market of China and typically corporate management of those companies don't think of themselves as a part of the plastics mold industry, only the plants within the organization making a pellet into a part do! All plastics product manufacturing where typically custom plastic processors are coded, with the lion's share of those plants likely being custom injection molders. The states with the most injection molding plant locations are Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. Dongguan had for years been number one, but that has recently changed most likely because of the changes in legislation and energy costs impacting manufacturing there.
Injection molding US Against China
On the cost Basis:
China labor cost is still much lower than US, during past 10 year, China labor is rising every year, it's about 500USD-800USD/ month, but please don't forget the productivity of individual labor increase as well. Low cost production is still one of the main reasons that China maintains the advantages in injection molding industry.
By Quality:
Quality of made in China have been labeled poor quality for a long time, but world is changing ,some of the best quality consumer electronics, like Apple iPhone, iPad, all the molds/ injection molding made in China. What you need to do is to find a good proper injection mold supplier to satisfy the quality of your products
