AMBA Reports Mold Manufacturers Endure Challenges, Aim to Grow

The American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) (Indianapolis, Indiana), recently released its annual AMBA “Business Forecast Report.” Data for this report was collected from 80 U.S.-based mold manufacturers during AMBA’s Business Forecast Study, which was conducted from late-December 2021 to mid-January 2022.

The 2022 “Business Forecast Report” showcases data on sales trends, profit levels, capital expenditures, shop and design employment levels and challenges faced in the industry. This data is pulled from surveyed responses on over 40 economic indicator questions that cover 2021 performance, fourth-quarter performance, as well as forecasts and expectations for 2022.

This year, a variety of economic indicators pointed to difficult conditions. In addition to fewer respondents indicating “fair” or better conditions, respondents also identified challenges related to rising difficulty in managing customer demands, a fall in anticipated capacity utilization and downticks in quoting, backlog, shipments and employment.

According to the report, while workforce development continued to be a top challenge for U.S. mold manufacturers, respondents identified other challenges that are rising in priority, including cost pressure, maintaining profitability and continuous improvement/operational efficiency — all of which were reportedly identified by a larger percentage of respondents than in years past. However, perhaps to combat these areas of concern, nearly one-in-four mold manufacturers indicated plans to invest in continuous improvement activities, while one-in-five will look to purchase or update equipment. A significant percentage of mold manufacturers also plan to utilize 3D printing and additive manufacturing in some capacity — in fact, this percentage is said to have risen to over half of the survey’s respondents for the first time in this survey’s history.

For the first time, survey respondents were asked to supply their job win rate (the percent of jobs received of jobs quoted). While the majority of companies (56%) reported a win rate of 16% or more, just over one-third (34%) of respondents reported winning 10% or less of jobs quoted. Additionally, respondents provided insight into their current workforce challenges. Nine-in-10 mold builders currently have at least one-to-two job openings currently and face moderate to severe difficulty in filling them.

The report is now available to AMBA members for $199 and for $299 to non-members.