Development trends of China’s injection molding industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, driving innovative development of Fune injection molding systems.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, high-quality development of the manufacturing sector will emerge as a key theme. Prioritizing technological innovation and digital transformation in traditional industries—particularly those centered on plastics and injection-molded products—will be of paramount importance. These efforts underpin the basic needs of society—food, clothing, housing, and transportation—and lay the foundation for advancing other industrial manufacturing sectors. Moreover, to implement the strategic goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, strengthen coordinated planning, explore viable pathways, and promote green, low-carbon transformation and the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, the injection‑molding industry is expected to exhibit the following trends.

1. Functionalization and greenification of raw materials and modified materials

As carbon neutrality and peak‑carbon goals continue to be implemented, green production and processing technologies for plastics are receiving increasing attention, with growing research and widespread adoption of green additives, green flame retardants, and green plasticizers. Meanwhile, bio‑based plastics—characterized by diverse feedstocks, low carbon emissions, easy biodegradability, and recyclability—are seeing steadily rising usage and are set to be widely employed across sectors such as packaging, tableware, home furnishings, stationery, maternal and infant products, and the electronic information industry. Despite continuous record‑high expansions in PLA production lines, capacity, and output both domestically and internationally, these still lag behind the rapid growth of downstream markets, leaving raw materials and modified resins in a state of persistent supply shortage.

2. Injection molding equipment is becoming more high-end, precise, intelligent, and energy-efficient.

In recent years, the industry has achieved continuous breakthroughs in key technologies, and the gap between China’s large‑scale two‑plate injection molding machines and fully electric models and those of developed countries has been steadily narrowing. For example, the research and industrialization of green, intelligent, large‑scale all‑two‑plate plastic injection molding equipment have broken the monopoly held by Germany and Japan; an online processing system for solid waste polymeric materials has reduced energy consumption and enhanced economic efficiency; and an integrated, intelligent production system oriented toward end‑use applications has enabled the realization of smart, unmanned injection molding production lines.

(Image: Fueneng ProPET direct‑pressure series injection molding machine)

3. Product design is lightweight, streamlined, and integrated.

In the injection-molded products sector, many applications are closely tied to everyday home life, such as small household appliances. These products come in a wide variety of types, enjoy high demand, undergo frequent model updates, and face stringent requirements for personalization and customization. Market competition is fierce, and profit margins tend to be thin. To minimize costs and promote a low‑carbon, eco‑friendly lifestyle, manufacturers strive to make their products increasingly lightweight while reducing the use of metals and plastics—practices that are already reflected in both structural design and mold‑making processes. At the same time, to meet the market’s need for diverse, small‑batch production, many manufacturing steps have gradually been automated and智能化ized. However, product assembly lines still rely heavily on manual labor, which hinders efforts to enhance corporate and product competitiveness. To address the issue of low assembly efficiency, an important approach is to standardize, unify, simplify, and even integrate injection‑molded components, minimizing the use of holes, screws, and other fasteners, thereby streamlining the assembly process.

4. Digitization, networking, and intelligentization of production, management, and decision-making processes

For injection‑molding enterprises, improving quality—both product and service—and reducing costs—including raw‑material procurement, inventory, labor, production, management, and service expenses—while boosting efficiency—such as manufacturing, communication, and collaboration—is precisely the primary objective of advancing smart manufacturing and successfully executing digital transformation in traditional industries. It is also a crucial strategy for gaining a firm foothold in fiercely competitive markets and reshaping growth drivers and competitive advantages. By leveraging next‑generation information technologies and the Industrial Internet, injection‑molding companies can progressively achieve optimal resource allocation, enhance total factor productivity, and, through new manufacturing paradigms—intelligent production, digital management, networked collaboration, personalized customization, and service‑oriented extension—undergo profound transformations and reconfigurations of their business operations, management practices, and business models.

5. Synergistic, clustered, and ecological development of technological innovation and industrial growth

In the injection molding industry, continuous breakthroughs are needed in areas such as the synthesis, production, and modification technologies for high-performance raw materials; the hardware and software technologies of molding equipment and its components; and the manufacturing and software technologies for advanced machinery. Recent policy documents issued by national and local authorities underscore that innovation is the primary driver of development, with technological innovation at its core. The actors and approaches to innovation will become increasingly diversified: alongside traditional research institutes and key laboratories, we are seeing the emergence of innovation centers, integrated innovation service complexes, innovation communities, and industry‑development consortia. At the same time, digitalization and software‑based solutions are accelerating both the efficiency and quality of technological innovation, while platform‑based and collaborative models are broadening the range of innovators, enabling them to draw on diverse strengths and co‑create and share value. Moreover, industrial development is shifting from conventional agglomeration zones toward cluster‑based growth. Small and medium‑sized injection‑molding enterprises are leveraging cluster advantages, fully embracing “Internet Plus Manufacturing,” and continuously building, strengthening, and complementing supply chains to construct a robust industrial ecosystem—thereby forging distinctive Chinese characteristics and competitive edges. Looking ahead, collaboration will extend beyond internal departmental coordination and upstream–downstream linkages to encompass individual–platform partnerships, enterprise–platform collaborations, and even inter‑platform synergies. Meanwhile, the model of isolated, stand‑alone enterprises will gradually give way to ecosystems: companies will need to cultivate their own ecological partners, and corporate development will increasingly adopt an eco‑centric approach or integrate into broader ecosystems.

Source: “2022–2028 China Injection-Molded Products Industry Survey and Market Supply‑Demand Forecast Report” by Gongyanwang.