2026 Global Metal Injection Molding Parts Industry Market Development Forecast

Nov 05, 2022

Metal injection molding is a metal processing process in which fine powder metal is mixed with adhesive materials to form "raw materials", and then cured by injection molding. The molding process can create large capacity and complex parts. After molding, the parts are adjusted to remove the adhesive and make the powder dense. The finished small parts can be used in many industries. Metal injection molding is a technology derived from the plastic injection molding industry. As we all know, plastic injection molding

technology can produce various products with complex shapes at low prices, but the strength of plastic products is not high. In order to improve their performance, metal or ceramic powder can be added to the plastic to obtain products with high strength and good wear resistance. In recent years, this idea has evolved to maximize the content of solid particles. This new powder metallurgy forming method is called metal injection molding. The basic process steps of metal injection molding are: first, select the metal powder and binder that meet the requirements, then mix the powder and binder with appropriate methods at a certain temperature, and then granulate them before injection molding. The formed blanks obtained are degreased, sintered and densified to become the final product.

Stainless steel is an iron base alloy containing at least about 11% chromium, which can prevent iron from rusting and provide heat resistance. Steel is a kind of ferroalloy, which usually contains several percent carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance. Magnetic alloy is the combination of various metals in the periodic table of elements, such as ferrite, which contains at least one of three main magnetic elements: iron, nickel or cobalt. Copper is a chemical element, a soft, ductile metal with very high thermal conductivity and conductivity. In 2019, the market shares of these different types of metal injection molding parts were 64.34%, 20.83%, 3.78% and 3.33% respectively.

Metal injection molding parts can be widely used in automobile, agricultural machinery, mining and metallurgy heavy machinery, engineering machinery, machine tools, power generation, rail transit, ships and other industries. The booming manufacturing industry provides a wide range of downstream markets and development platforms for the metal injection molding parts industry. With the continuous development of human material needs, many new product types are emerging, many of which must be provided by metal injection molding parts companies, which has expanded the application scope of products in this industry to a certain extent and promoted the development of the industry.

Market development status of global metal injection molding parts industry

North America is the world's largest revenue market, with a market share of 39.93% in 2015 and 41.32% in 2019, up 0.39%. Europe is the second largest market, with a market share of 21.18% in 2019. The metal injection molding parts industry mainly comes from the United States. The top three companies in the industry are Indo MIM, Form Technologies and Shin Zu Shing. In 2019, the market shares were 4.91%, 4.50% and 4.38% respectively.

Stainless steel is the most important upstream raw material in the metal injection molding parts industry. In terms of the supply of stainless steel raw materials, it is expected that the supply of other materials will remain relatively loose, except for the shortage of nickel. In recent years, the global chrome ore and crude steel production capacity has been relatively stable, the growth rate has fluctuated, and the recent price has dropped, which is conducive to reducing the cost of raw stainless steel materials. In addition, the social inventory of stainless steel continued to grow, which confirmed the oversupply of metal injection molding parts in the upstream industry. To sum up, the market price and supply of upstream raw materials are relatively stable.

During the COVID-19, the downstream markets of the metal injection molding parts industry almost all stagnated. Take the automobile industry as an example. The global automobile industry is facing an unprecedented crisis from production to consumption. The epidemic first led to the shutdown of factories. At present, almost all factories except China are still closed, and at least 120 automobile factories are temporarily closed. In the United States alone, many auto industry workers died of COVID-19. Under the pressure of the labor union, the three major American auto manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler announced in mid March that their North American factories would stop production. European car manufacturing has also been phased out. The global auto sales volume plummeted, and the downstream demand is the most important development driver of the industry. The reduction of downstream demand during the epidemic is bound to limit the development of the metal injection molding parts industry in the short term.

Market Development Forecast of Global Metal Injection Mold Parts Industry

In 2015, the market share of the global metal injection parts industry was US $1390 million, which increased to US $2158.8 million in 2019. It is expected to reach US $4194.3 million by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.46%

In recent years, with the increasing demand and policy support, metal injection molding parts enterprises in the Asia Pacific region, especially in Asia, have generally invested heavily in equipment during the development of new project construction technology. At present, the overall equipment level of a few Sino Indian metal injection molding parts companies has reached the level of industrialized countries abroad. These companies rely on advanced technology and equipment to support the manufacturing of key components of Asian mainframe and major technical equipment. They have become the backbone of the independent manufacturing capacity of metal refractive parts in automotive, electronic, national defense and other fields, and have the ability to compete in the international market.

The metal injection molding parts industry is a capital intensive industry, with limited capital sources in underdeveloped areas, which will restrict the ability of subsequent development. In developing regions, most of the metal injection molding parts industries are private enterprises. The main sources of funds are rolling investment of retained earnings of enterprises and indirect bank financing. The financing channels are single and cannot be improved. There are certain restrictions on the continuous expansion of enterprise scale, the improvement of international competitiveness, and the subsequent development of enterprises. Metal injection mold parts enterprises in developing regions lack scale advantages and industrial chain coordination. At present, the concentration of the manufacturing industry of metal injection mold parts in the Asia Pacific region is low, most companies have small capacity, and there are relatively few companies with scale advantages in the whole industry. Only a few companies have product scheme design, mold design and manufacturing and material development. It is difficult for the metal injection mold parts industry as a whole to obtain the synergy of the industrial chain in production and R&D, which is not conducive to improving the competitiveness of the industry.

The metal injection mold parts industry has always been considered as an industry with high energy consumption and high pollution. Therefore, the impact of environmental protection policies on the industry is particularly important. Green manufacturing is the future development trend of the industry. With the global economic development mode turning to the policy of adjusting and optimizing the structure, focusing on efficiency and environmental protection, and upgrading the industrial level, more and more regions have put forward strict requirements for green environmental protection production. This requires the metal injection mold parts industry to develop in the direction of green, environmental protection and energy conservation, which will put forward higher requirements for manufacturers in the industry, increase the manufacturing costs of manufacturers, and also raise the barriers to entry in the industry, thus reducing the number of new entrants to the industry.