During the May Day holiday, I visited several companies in the Ninghai Industrial Zone. Although the area is close to where I live, I had never taken the time to explore it in depth. This visit gave me a much clearer and more direct understanding of the local industrial landscape.

Overall, most companies in the zone are engaged in plastic mold manufacturing and molding processes, which reflects Ninghai’s long-established position as a hub for the plastic mold industry. I also visited a few automotive parts manufacturers, but their products were mainly plastic components, representing a typical extension of the regional industrial chain.

During the visit, one particular factory left a strong impression on me. The workshop was equipped with multiple CNC lathes, and large ton bags were neatly stacked in the open area. Based on industry experience, it was clear that these bags contained cold-forged blanks.

Through further discussion, I learned that this factory mainly serves a local automotive component manufacturer as a supporting supplier.

This customer company focuses on the design and manufacturing of suspension system components, gear shift control assemblies, fuel evaporation emission control systems, steering system parts, and various rubber and plastic automotive components. Their business model is quite typical:

Sourcing cold-forged blanks externally → Performing in-house CNC machining and surface treatment → Supplying to upstream OEMs or system integrators

However, during my conversation with the factory owner, he openly shared that business has been slow this year. The reason is that his key customer has recently invested in multi-station cold forging machines, gradually bringing previously outsourced processes in-house. As a result, his orders have dropped significantly.