I. The Big Picture: A Cold-at-Home, Hot-Abroad Year

China has held its position as the world's largest producer of injection molding machines for more than ten consecutive years, accounting for roughly 70 percent of global output. But from 2025 into the first half of 2026, the industry's growth engine has clearly shifted gears: domestic demand is flat, while exports are surging.

By customs statistics, China's injection molding machine exports reached USD 2.089 billion in 2024, against imports of USD 437 million, widening the trade surplus to USD 1.652 billion; in January–October 2025, cumulative export value had already reached RMB 13.9 billion, with 27,630 units exported in January–June. On pricing, the average export price in the first half of 2024 was about USD 40,900 per unit, versus an average import price of about USD 77,200 per unit — high-end machines still rely partly on imports, but the gap is narrowing.

The temperature of domestic demand can be read directly off the industry leader's books: Haitian International's domestic sales revenue in 2025 was RMB 10.132 billion, up a mere 0.2% year on year. The year in one sentence: cold at home, hot abroad, with nearly all incremental growth coming from overseas. For upstream suppliers, this means customers' purchasing priorities, expansion locations, and payment rhythms are all changing — the old playbook of chasing the domestic replacement market needs recalibrating.

II. The Landscape: One Giant, Many Strong Players, Three Ways of Living

Injection molding machines are a textbook "one giant, many strong players" market, and the 2025 report cards of the three leading listed companies happen to represent three different ways of living.

Haitian International is the undisputed leader. Sales revenue for fiscal 2025 was about RMB 17.733 billion, up 10.0% year on year; of this, injection molding machine sales were RMB 16.897 billion, up 9.7%, with more than 56,000 machines delivered for the full year; profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 3.301 billion, up 7.2%, with a gross margin of 32.7%. What deserves most attention is the structure: overseas sales exceeded RMB 7.6 billion, up 26.4% year on year, lifting the overseas share to 42.9% — the leader's second growth curve is now fully staked on overseas markets. All figures above are self-reported in the company's results announcement.

Yizumi follows a multi-product-line route. Its 2025 revenue was RMB 6.048 billion, up 19.46% year on year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 709 million, up 16.58%; injection molding machine revenue was RMB 4.316 billion, up 21.39%, roughly 70 percent of total revenue, at a 31.10% gross margin; die-casting machine revenue was RMB 1.189 billion, up 33.06%; rubber machinery revenue was RMB 297 million, up 34.02%. Overseas revenue was RMB 1.808 billion, up 29.67%, likewise growing distinctly faster than domestic. The twin engines of injection molding plus die casting make it the fastest-growing of the leading manufacturers by revenue.

Chen Hsong Group closes its fiscal year at the end of March, so its figures are not directly comparable with the other two. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, turnover was HKD 2.595 billion, up 29% year on year, and profit attributable to equity holders was HKD 154 million, up a sharp 53%; but for the six months ended September 30, 2025, turnover was HKD 1.212 billion, roughly flat year on year, and profit fell 7% to HKD 60.6 million — upward momentum clearly slowed in the second half of 2025. On the technology front, Chen Hsong is betting on super-sized machines: its 4,500-tonne two-platen machine, equipped with pre-melting technology delivering an ultra-large 280-kilogram shot weight, has been delivered to an overseas customer.

In the second tier, L.K. Technology, Tederic, Borch Intelligent, and others each have their own focus. According to brokerage compilations, Tederic's overseas revenue share reached 44.8% in 2024, the highest export dependence among the leading manufacturers.

III. Two Trends: All-Electric and Super-Sized — Stretching the Product Mix at Both Ends

The product mix is being stretched toward both ends: higher-precision all-electric machines at one end, and larger-tonnage two-platen machines at the other.

All-electric injection molding machines replace hydraulic systems with direct servo motor drive, offering energy savings, cleanliness, and high repeatability. Industry consultancies estimate that the penetration rate of all-electric machines in the Chinese market in 2024 was roughly 15% to 20%, well below Japan's more than 60 percent and Europe's roughly 40 percent; by application, the all-electric penetration rate in medical injection molding is estimated at about 46%, the highest of any downstream segment. Several forces are pushing penetration higher:

  • Energy-saving and carbon-reduction policies plus electricity costs let all-electric machines' energy advantage translate directly into a payback period;
  • High-end applications such as medical and 3C impose hard requirements for clean production and high repeatability;
  • Falling prices of domestic all-electric models have narrowed the initial-investment gap versus hydraulic machines;
  • Development of multi-cavity, multi-material molding and larger clamping-force platforms is widening the application boundary of all-electric machines.

At the other, super-sized end, two-platen injection molding machines are rapidly replacing traditional three-platen toggle designs and becoming the mainstream choice for large automotive parts. Integrated large plastic parts such as automotive front-end frames, bumpers, instrument panels, and door panels correspond to machines with clamping forces from 1,000 to 6,000 tonnes. A landmark event was L.K.'s delivery to an overseas customer of a 6,000-tonne super-large two-platen injection molding machine with a theoretical shot weight of 83 kilograms; Chen Hsong's 3,600-tonne two-platen machine has likewise achieved an ultra-large injection capacity in the 200-kilogram class. Large machines carry high unit prices and high supporting-component value, making them the profit high ground every player is fighting for. Note also that demand for super-sized machines is not limited to automotive: components for low-altitude-economy aircraft, large logistics containers, and home-appliance housings are new applications likewise driving the development pace of ultra-large injection-capacity platforms.

IV. The Export Map: Southeast Asia Ramping Up, Mexico as a Strategic Foothold

The regional structure of exports tells a clearer story than the totals.

According to customs data cited by Changjiang Securities, China's injection molding machine exports to Southeast Asia grew 105% year on year in the single month of May 2025, accounting for 45% of that month's total exports. Southeast Asia is absorbing relocated capacity in packaging, daily necessities, home appliances, and 3C assembly, and injection molding machines benefit directly as the "advance equipment of capacity relocation." Injection molding plants in Vietnam, Indonesia, and similar markets are dominated by small and medium enterprises whose purchasing favors cost-effective small and mid-tonnage machines — a good fit for Chinese manufacturers' volume products. Under the broader category of plastics processing equipment, China's top five export destinations in 2023 were India, Vietnam, Turkey, Russia, and Mexico, with emerging markets replacing Europe and America as the mainstay.

Mexico follows a different logic: a nearshore foothold in the automotive supply chain. Mexico's injection molding machine imports in 2024 were about USD 530 million, second globally only to the United States; its automotive output in 2023 was 3.78 million vehicles, up 14.2% year on year, making it the world's seventh-largest automotive producer. Haitian International and Yizumi have both been advancing localization in Mexico, positioning close to the North American automotive cluster.

For upstream suppliers, machine exports also imply a supporting chain that follows machines abroad: once the overseas installed base rises, demand for screws and barrels, wear parts, and auxiliary-equipment spares and services emerges with a lag of two to three years.

V. Downstream and Components: Demand Structure Is Shifting, and Components Follow

Downstream, by the classification of the China Plastics Machinery Industry Yearbook, the application structure of China's injection molding machines is roughly:

  • General plastics (daily necessities, logistics turnover containers, etc.): about 28%;
  • Automotive: about 26%;
  • Home appliances: about 25%;
  • Packaging: about 12%;
  • Medical and 3C precision combined: about 9%.

Automotive and medical are widely viewed as the two fastest-growing, highest-barrier directions; 3C precision is strongly cyclical; home appliances get a short-term boost from China's domestic trade-in policies but have limited long-cycle growth; packaging and daily necessities are the largest but slowest-growing mature segments.

Along the core component chain, the value of an injection molding machine is distributed mainly across the injection system (screw, barrel, nozzle), the clamping system, the hydraulic system, and servo drives and control systems. Domestic screw-and-barrel supply has formed a clustered landscape, with leading companies self-reporting that the performance of their wear-resistant, corrosion-resistant specialty barrels and screws is on par with European, American, and Japanese counterparts. Several shifts worth upstream suppliers' attention:

  • Screws and barrels are consumables, typically requiring replacement every three to five years, so aftermarket demand is steady and grows with the installed base;
  • The all-electric shift moves per-machine value from hydraulic components to servo motors, drives, and ball screws, benefiting the domestic servo camp of Inovance, Estun, Delta, and others, though high-precision encoders still rely on imports;
  • The super-sizing of hydraulic machines drives demand for high-displacement hydraulic components, with domestic substitution in hydraulics accelerating in step;
  • Special wear- and corrosion-resistant treatments for plasticizing components (such as bimetallic barrels) are rising along with the growing use of engineering plastics and modified materials.

VI. Conclusion: Upstream Along the Chain, Who Has New Orders

Translating the industry shifts above into the order language of upstream suppliers yields roughly five threads:

  • Machine makers' expansion and going global: with Haitian and Yizumi growing overseas revenue at nearly 30 percent, expanding machine capacity and overseas bases directly drives procurement volume in castings, sheet metal, servo systems, hydraulic components, and controllers;
  • All-electric ramp-up: suppliers of servo motors, drives, ball screws, and precision transmission components face a structural window;
  • Super-sizing: ultra-large-tonnage two-platen machines lift the per-machine value of large castings and forgings, high-displacement hydraulic systems, and large mold-temperature auxiliary equipment;
  • Aftermarket: the three-to-five-year replacement cycle of screws and barrels, stacked on a rising overseas installed base, makes spares and services the highest-certainty repeat business;
  • The machine-replacement wave at molding plants: as downstream factories install new machines, they simultaneously purchase molds, robots, drying and mold-temperature auxiliary equipment, and modified plastics — behind every machine is a string of supporting orders.

For B2B salespeople supplying injection molding machine makers and molding factories, in this round of "exports plus the two trends," the list of customers worth calling on is longer than you might think. On Tianxia Gongchang AI — Tianxia Gongchang (tianxiagongchang.com), a B2B platform covering 4.8 million Chinese factories — you can conversationally search this industry chain's real factories, by category and region, across its database of 4.8 million real, operating factories.

Data Sources and Methodology

All data in this article come from public channels: the 2025 annual results announcements and public disclosures of Haitian International, Yizumi, and Chen Hsong Group (all company figures are self-reported); import and export statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China (as publicly cited by Zhuansushijie, Changjiang Securities research, and others); the downstream application structure per the China Plastics Machinery Industry Yearbook; and estimates of all-electric penetration from industry consultancies such as Zhiyan Consulting and Chinabaogao. Notable differences in statistical scope: Chen Hsong Group's fiscal year ends March 31 each year and cannot be directly added to or compared with the other two companies' calendar-year figures; in the export data, "injection molding machines" follows the customs tariff-code scope while "plastics processing equipment" is a broader scope, and both are labeled separately in the text; all-electric penetration rates and downstream structure percentages are industry-body estimates, not official statistics.