At present, China's mold industry is developing rapidly, and higher requirements are placed on the quantity, quality, variety, specifications and performance of mold steel. In recent years, the production, production technology, process equipment, quality and variety of mold steel at home and abroad have made great progress. With the improvement of mold quality requirements, countries have developed a number of new steel grades on the basis of the original cold work die steel, hot work die steel and plastic die steel. The development of mold steel has promoted the development of industrial products in the direction of high-grade and high value-added.

The survey shows that the output of China's mold steel has grown rapidly in the past 20 years, ahead of other steels. The output of mold steel accounts for about 80% of alloy tool steel. In 2012, China's mold steel consumption reached 117 billion yuan. The sales volume of mold steel enterprises reached more than 180 billion yuan. In 2015, China's mold steel market reached 2 500 kN. For the seventh consecutive year, China has become the world's largest consumer of mold steel, accounting for 23% of global consumption. Although China is a major producer of mold steel in the world, the gap between supply and demand has reached 85 billion yuan, and the import dependence has exceeded 50%. Most of the high-grade mold steels rely on imports.

Affected by the slow recovery of the international economy and the slowdown in economic growth, the domestic mold steel industry continues to show an operating trend of weak market demand, low steel price fluctuations, high raw material prices and declining economic returns. Although mold steel enterprises have taken various measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the business situation is still very serious. The high cost and low efficiency of the mold steel industry is difficult to reverse in the short term. (International Metal Processing Network)