I just received a call from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, inquiring about SKD11, SKD61, and 2083 die steel.
He is a Vietnamese-Chinese expatriate from Guangdong who asked me to speak Cantonese with him. He runs a heat treatment plant in Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, his clients outsource their molds to him for heat treatment, but problems frequently arise. Sometimes the molds crack, and he is blamed for poor heat treatment, leading to constant disputes. So he wants to see if he can make a breakthrough in terms of sourcing mold steel.
He found me through a professor at South China University of Technology and wants to learn about the market conditions for SKD11, SKD61, and 2083 to see what advantages I can offer to support him.
There are two types of advantages: one is quality, and the other is price.
If he prioritizes quality, the price will certainly be higher; if he prioritizes price, the quality won’t be very good.
He went on to explain that the mold steel market in Vietnam is mainly divided into two regions: Ho Chi Minh City in the south and the capital, Hanoi, in the north. The main sources of mold steel are Japan, Taiwan, and China. For molds with specific requirements, Japanese mold steel is generally chosen, while for those without such requirements, Chinese mold steel is selected—because as more and more people have opened factories in China, there is a demand for cheaper mold steel.
He is based in Ho Chi Minh City in the south, a city that developed relatively early and focuses primarily on low-end products like toys. In Hanoi to the north, the focus is mainly on electronic products, which have slightly higher requirements.
Although Vietnam is currently undergoing rapid development and market demand is high, the market remains price-sensitive and still prefers lower-priced mold steel—much like the early Chinese market, where low-end products accounted for 70% of the market share. Mold steel with a unit price that is too high is very difficult to sell.
SKD61 is a hot-work die steel. When used for aluminum die casting, there are quite a few issues to consider. Sometimes, poor mold life isn’t just due to the die steel itself, but also factors such as mold design, feeding methods, and runner size. These factors are intertwined, making the problem difficult to resolve because it’s hard to draw clear lines between them.
Aluminum die-casting molds place high demands on the performance of die steel. If you prioritize quality, the price becomes unattractive; if the price is attractive, the quality is poor, leading to an increase in customer complaints—making it a difficult trade-off.
Cold-work die steel SKD11 is a simpler option, as China has a competitive advantage in this area. With improvements in domestic smelting equipment and technology, the quality has become very good, yet our prices remain relatively low. While the performance gap is minimal, the price difference is significant—this might be a suitable option for promotion in Vietnam.
2083 is a type of stainless steel. If your target customers don’t have high requirements for mirror polishing and are only looking for rust resistance, then this is straightforward—some domestic 2083 options are relatively inexpensive. However, if high-quality mirror polishing is required, the demands on smelting quality become much higher. High-quality 2083 is definitely not cheap, so this might not be suitable for the Vietnamese market.
From this phone call, I took away two key points.
First, doing business in Vietnam with mold steel doesn’t necessarily require speaking English; the business owner I spoke with today specifically asked me to speak Cantonese.
Second, no matter where you do business, it comes down to positioning. If you don’t clearly define who your target customers are, you’ll feel lost. Trying to cover everything at once is very difficult.
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Wu Dejian’s tool steel, the chief of staff of the user, bought everything he had used.