A molding workshop in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/taizhou.com.cn]

The mold sector in Taizhou's Huangyan district has been developing rapidly in recent years.

In 2021, Huangyan Smart Mold Town – an industrial park focusing on the mold sector – saw 6.8 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) in annual output. The park is currently home to 137 mold companies, with another 13 expected to set up operations soon.

In addition, most companies in the park have completed digital upgrading, leading to lower labor costs and higher production efficiency.

One such example is Zhejiang Jingcheng Mold Machinery Co Ltd, a company specializing in the R&D and production of plastic extrusion die and ancillary equipment.

The company's new workshops are all built in accordance with Germany's industry 4.0 standards featuring high levels of automation.

"We are the largest producer of extrusion dies in Asia and the third largest worldwide,"  said Chen Fupeng, deputy executive general manager at Jingcheng.

The industrial park produces over 20 percent of injection molds in China, more than 30 percent of the nation's blowing molds and over 80 percent of its injection molds, according to Xie Qiqun, deputy Party chief of the park.

A digital management platform specially designed for the mold sector has also been launched in the park.

The platform, which encapsulates Huangyan authorities' efforts to promote digital upgrading in the mold sector, has amassed over 4,000 active users that are primarily from Huangyan and other mold manufacturing hubs like Dongguan, Ningbo, and Kunshan.

As a national manufacturing hub for molds and plastics, Huangyan was home to 226 mold enterprises above designated size as of November 2021, among which 38 had a scale of more than 100 million yuan. Ninety-eight of these companies had been recognized as high-tech companies, and 23 had been listed as national key companies, accounting for over 10 percent of the nation's total.