Nowadays, the demands in plastics machinery from China, especially from the Southern, are soaring. In “2018 the 20th DMP-China Dongguan International Mould and Metalworking Exhibition Plastics, Packaging and Rubber Exhibition (DMP)” held in Dongguan city in late November, many machinery manufacturers have introduced machines for plastic work in the era of electric cars and smartphones of the future. Mr. Hironobu Matsui, the vice president of Association of Japan Plastic Machinery (JPM) and the president of MATSUI MFG, gave an interview about the direction of plastics industry in China as follows. 

What is the current situation in plastics industry?
“In the past two years, the plastics industry was very active, which resulted from the steady growth of the automotive industry. However, the slowdown of the smartphone industry caused the order of plastic injection machines from the smartphone industry to decrease continuously. From the current trends, it is difficult to have a lot of orders from this industry.”

It seems like the manufacturers of injection machines are waiting for the arrival of 5G smartphones.
“Yes. If the 5G arrives, many smartphone parts will have to become plastic parts, resulting in higher needs for plastic injection machines to replace molding ones. When that time comes, the plastics industry that is being sluggish in terms of orders from the smartphone industry will recover.”

What’s your opinion about the automotive industry?
“The automotive industry has nothing to be concerned. In China, there is a continuous investment in machinery for plastic work. In the era of electric cars when the manufacturers want to reduce the weight of the motor vehicles, it is the plastics industry that will gain the most benefits.”

Why the Southern of China?
“In the south of China is located the city of Shenzhen, which is one of China's innovation centers having produced a lot of new products and thus becoming an area of high production capacity. Many of these products consist of plastic parts. So I think the south of China is an area that provides opportunities for entrepreneurs in the plastics industry to show their skills.”

What do you think about the China-U.S. trade war?
“We have certainly been affected by the trade war. However, the recent DMP event shows that the manufacturer’s desire of investment has not been compromised. In addition, there is a great probability that local manufacturers will react to the trade war by moving their production bases to Southeast Asia instead.”