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Metal Injection Moulding in Japan: Applications and materials insight from the 2022 JPMA MIM Market Report The Japan Powder Metallurgy Association’s (JPMA) annual statistics report on Metal Injection Moulding provides unique insight into the ongoing evolution of the country’s MIM industry. As well as revealing a continued upsurge in production in 2022, changes in the applications and materials mix offer visibility into growth areas for the industry. We present the published data along with insight from the JPMA into wider factors that influenced the broader Japanese PM industry in 2022.
It has been another positive year for Japan’s MIM industry, in contrast to the declining volumes for structural PM parts. In his introduction to the Japan Powder Metallurgy Association’s 2022 Annual Report, its Executive Director, Yoshio Uetsuki, shared insight into another challenging year for Japan’s wider Powder Metallurgy industry and the factors that influenced the industry. Whilst 2022’s MIM sales increased over the previous year (Fig. 1), the industry was inevitably influenced by wider political, social and economic developments. Uetsuki stated, “2022 was a turbulent year. An optimistic outlook of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis at the beginning of the year has turned out to be an unexpected development due to soaring international commodity prices such as food and energy, accelerating inflation and economic deterioration in Europe and the United States.” He explained that the domestic economy was affected by the decrease in automobile production and high resource costs. “The global economy has followed a recovery
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trend since the COVID-19 crisis, but the pace of economic recovery has slowed due to high inflation and monetary tightening. On the other hand, in Japan, economic activity was stagnant due to the decrease in automobile production with a shortage of semiconductors and high resource
prices, but in the latter half of the period was supported by personal consumption and capital investment.” Under such an economic environment, the domestic production volume of vehicles (including buses and trucks), decreased by 0.1% from the previous year to
Japanese MIM sales 2016-2022 Japanese MIM sales 2016-2022
JPY 16,000 JPY 14,000 JPY 12,000 JPY 10,000 JPY 8,000 JPY 6,000 JPY 4,000 JPY 2,000
JPY -
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Fig. 1 MIM sales in Japan reached record levels in 2022 (Data courtesy JPMA)
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MIM in Japan
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