Plastics News 2017 Show Daily - October 20, 2017 - 5

Plastics News, October 20, 2017 * 5

Plastics News photo by Caroline Seidel

FAKUMA SHOW DAILY

TK Mold looks to Europe
to train its next generation
By Steve Toloken
Plastics News Staff
The new head of one of China's
largest export-oriented mold makers, TK Mold (Shenzhen) Ltd., is
looking to Europe to help train the
next generation of Chinese toolmakers.
Joerg Wehling, who took over as
general manager of TK Mold earlier
this year, said he's very interested
in TK joining an apprenticeship
program that Austrian plastics machinery firm Engel Holding GmbH
and several others started in
Shanghai in 2013.
Engel and its partners transplanted the intensive Austrian
and German four-year apprentice
training program to their China
factories and saw their first class of
graduates finish this year.
"I like this program; I think this
is the future for Chinese mold making," Wehling said at Fakuma. "We
need mold makers in China, definitely, educated mold makers."
The push for training is partly a
response to China's rising costs, he
said, which are forcing companies
like TK to automate and upgrade to
maintain global competitiveness.
TK Mold is part of TK Group
(Holdings) Ltd., a large injection
molding company that has factories in China and is publicly listed
in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
TK Group has about 3,500 employees and HK$1.62 billion (US$205
million) in sales last year.
Wehling said he's talking with
Engel and its other partners in the
Shanghai program, plastic packaging firm Alpla-Werke Alwin Lehner
GmbH & Co. KG and connector
solutions company Odu GmbH &
Co. KG.
He hopes TK could start participating with them next year. China's
large mold making industry needs
employees with a broader set of
skills, he said.
"These will be the toolroom managers in China - let's say for the
next decade, in my opinion - because these people have this deep
knowledge," Wehling said. "They
know about steel, they know about
manufacturing, they know about
design.
"This is the perfect toolroom
manager for the future," he said.
TK Mold's sales rose 5.5 percent
in the first half of 2017 to HK$306.1
million (US$39.2 million), as the
group has tried to expand into
ultra-large molds for the automotive industry, the company said in
an August filing to the Hong Kong
stock market.
"The competition in China is getting stronger and stronger," he said.
"That's why we have to choose the
right strategy for the future."
Wehling said that strategy includes pushing into other markets
demanding precision mold making,
particularly medical and packaging.
"My plan, and the plan as well of
the board members, is to increase
our share in packaging and medical," he said. "These are the most

TK Mold
(Shenzhen) Ltd.
Hall A6, Booth 6309
growing businesses in the future."
He said more than 90 percent of
TK Mold's business is export-oriented, so the firm also wants to de-

velop more business within China.
But rather than target domestic
Chinese companies, he said TK will
focus on global brand companies
like Danone that also sell a lot within China.
"They want to have a local mold
maker there who is doing the
molds for them for their local production," Wehling said.

Joerg Wehling, TK Mold Ltd.'s general manager

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News 2017 Show Daily - October 20, 2017