The South African contingent comprised company owners, GMs, toolroom and production managers with one shared interest, enthusiasm for injection moulding

The Yizumi Connect event was held on the eve of Chinaplas and was a busy affair

60 machines in operation – A huge variety of mouldings were produced on the 60 machines, all in operation, at the event, including lens, 2K silicone mouldings and automotive lighting components (also 2K)

Strong SA team at Yizumi global technology event in China

A STRONG South African contingent attended the Yizumi Connect 2026 technology event in Shanghai in April, with two dozen convertors and injection moulding enthusiasts undertaking the journey to China, and the overall reaction was simply, WOW! Yizumi has come a long way in a very short time!

Founded in 2002 in Foshan, Southern China, as a manufacturer of die-casting equipment, Yizumi soon began producing injection moulding machines. As a small startup, its subsequent growth has been virtually exponential. It’s now reputed to be the third most popular injection moulding machine brand internationally, after Haitian and ENGEL.

Although Yizumi has achieved impressive international popularity, its core market remains China, where the industry is achieving world-beating output fi gures. It became the first moulding equipment manufacturer to be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2015, driven by major international expansions and continuous investment.

The Advanced Moulding Technology Conference, under the theme ‘Evolve Beyond Limits,’ was held at the vast 61,000m² Yizumi plant in Nanxun, Shanghai. Over 60 machines were shown in production, including injection moulding, rubber injection, 3D printing, die casting, and thixomoulding (magnesium alloy) machines and automation solutions. Over a thousand guests attended day one of the event.

Richard Yan, the company’s founder, CEO and chairman, still presides over this remarkable industrial miracle and its 5,000 global employees. This suggests Yan has created a very effective blueprint focused on enhanced teamwork and rapid technology evolution.

Yan also engaged several European injection moulding specialists, specifically for automotive moulding (BYD, a leading Chinese motor vehicle marque that, in 2025, purchased over 800 of its machines in China). It has also appointed Western specialists in the North American and European markets, boosting its knowledge and market penetration there.

Among these appointments was Dr Hans Wobbe, former chief technology officer of ENGEL. The company has achieved 17,3% growth in the last five years, which is impressive considering the early part was during Covid.

Globalisation strategy

At the Connect event, Yizumi executive vice-president and GM of the injection moulding machine and international business division, James Zhang, officially unveiled the Yizumi Globalization 2.0 strategy, outlining a “global market” mindset as the company moves “from global expansion to deeper local engagement after 20 years of international growth”. Yizumi offers 548 variants (about one model for every 10 employees), mainly in the 15-900 tons clamp force range and allelectric machines from 15-1,380 tons. It also builds substantially larger machines, up to 5,500 tons and even larger on request. It operates technical centres around the world and this year is opening three more, in Italy, Indonesia and Hungary. It is prioritising Africa for ‘in-depth market research’ and recently delivered a huge 5,500-ton machine to a customer in Algeria.

Yizumi success in South Africa

Yizumi has achieved impressive success in South Africa with agent Dave Moore of Mould Base SA. A qualified tool and die maker, Moore was originally involved in injection moulding with his company, Contractools, in Maritzburg. He shut Contractools in 2012 and moved into mould component supply, but that was put on the back burner after his appointment as the agent for Yizumi. His decision to represent Yizumi, a then hardly known internationally and completely unknown in South Africa, proved to be a coincidental masterstroke.

Already well-known in the injection moulding sector, especially in KZN, Moore soon detected good demand for the Yizumi machines, which feature enhanced controls, have proven reliable and, importantly, have a good price-to-performance ratio. The machines’ luminous green livery is also popular.

“We have a machine for every application,” said Moore, and this quite literally is the case, with Yizumi machines for automotive, packaging, PET, technical goods and more going into the market. What has made Moore’s job easier, too, has been Yizumi’s rapid and enthusiastic support throughout for the SA venture. Machines are typically delivered just weeks after order, and Mould Base has seen orders coming in from around the country.