Why the cost of export mould is higher from contract moulds?

When it comes to the mould making, two types we go for, export mould and contract mould. “Export mould” we only make the mould in house, customer run the mould at their local. “Contract mould” we make both mould and injection moulding production for customer in house. Considering the pricing, shipping cost, customs duty etc. factors, different customer have different needs. During the RFQs process, there is typical question, why the cost of export moulds higher from contract mould?

“Hello, because of the size we would probably have the part made in local and only need the mould, so you go injection service too? I am confused that why the cost of export moulds gets higher than contract mould? I am in Indiana, US.

Thanks,
Mark”

This is good question above, two options can be considered, export moulds only or contract moulding. We need to give a persuasive answer to customer for better understanding.

“Hello Mark,
Yes, we do both mould making and injection moulding. If we go for export mould, we do mould only, my mould price will be higher than contract mould price, estimated 30% higher at least for reasons below:

1. Extra cost for adaptation
Since the mould will be operated by the third party in US, export mould to US needs be made in DME standard, we have to adopt your local moulder's injection machine and their internal mould standard; mould steel we have to use recognizable steel brand LKM with steel certificate, which guaranteed a good quality. For an in house production mould, we can use cheaper local steel vendor we trust, and mould standard just be adapted to my own injection machine.

2. Extra cost for risk management

For all export moulds, we will guarantee a minimum moulding cycle. For example, harden steel mould 1 million cycle at least; pre-harden steel, 300K cycle at least, that means during the guaranteed cycle times, we take full responsibility for any non-operation caused failures, for this reason we intend to make it more durable than expected. By this way, the complaints we got from clients were controlled at an extremely low level. That means it will be simpler for us to do the mould that just meet's production requirements if we are the one to operate the mould.

3. Business Strategies
There are no major quality differences. But unlike export mould, we count on the moulding production in a long term, it is a business strategic to win the moulding orders by a lower mould cost. For an in-house mould, we use local standard, no packing cost, no after services cost, we operate the mould in our own shop. For all contract moulding business, mould cost are always one time charge, that means if the moulding orders really exceed the current mould life we will make new moulds for free to continue mass production.

I hope these makes sense to you.
Thank you”