Prof. Dr. Min Chen has been working on international management, technology transfer and industrial value chains for many years. He also has long-standing links with the die casting industry – including through his work for JLFrench and advisory mandates in the HPDC environment.
At the EUROGUSS Executive Circle in Paris on 1 July 2026, Chen will be part of the panel “Europe in the HPDC Game: How to Win the Race”. The discussion will focus on Europe’s competitiveness in the global HPDC market, the future role of European companies in the value chain and innovations such as megacasting, digitalisation, new materials and processes.
Johannes Messer: What structural differences do you see between China and Europe today?
Min Chen: In addition to the entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese companies, the role of the Chinese state at various levels cannot be ignored. Capital support, tax benefits, low-cost energy, affordable industrial land, local protection mechanisms and the regional concentration of certain industries have enabled many companies to grow quickly and to take risks that European companies would not dare to take under normal circumstances.
Johannes Messer: How does this become visible?
Min Chen: Chinese players tend to invest in expensive machinery even when there are no concrete orders yet. They call it ‘to attract phoenixes by building the nest first’. For many European suppliers, such capital expenditure is barely possible. They also act much faster: Even when production processes – and therefore implementation and quality – are not yet entirely perfect, Chinese companies often take the risk of carrying out orders. They call it to learn how to fight by actually fighting the battle.
Chinese companies also have more efficient networks and benefit from comprehensive supply chains for sub-parts. Another advantage is access to comparatively inexpensive raw materials. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of aluminium. At the same time, Chinese OEMs are increasingly bringing structural castings in-house. This reduces the room for manoeuvre for Tier 1 suppliers. Strategically, this trend is likely to have a far greater impact than the price war alone.
Johannes Messer: For a long time, China was seen as a market that adopted Western technologies. Is that image still accurate?
Min Chen: The work ethic of Chinese employees is much higher, as both white- and blue-collar workers are willing to accept long working hours in return for higher incomes. Chinese companies are also developing very quickly from learners into innovators. They are no longer simple copycats. Technologies such as gigacasting, thixomoulding and rheocasting are being utilized more quickly. At the same time, new innovations are emerging, for example in the field of electromagnetic thermal management like at Huawei.
Johannes Messer: Where can Europe’s aluminium foundry industry learn from the experience and dynamism of the Chinese market?
Min Chen: Many Chinese companies focus more strongly on production efficiency than on service excellence. Their pricing strategies result in overkilling in the industry. Europe should also avoid adopting the overcapacities that are now destroying the margins of many Chinese companies – that is old hubris in a new flag. Chinese die casters also have inherent weaknesses. Some are highly leveraged, operate on extremely thin margins due to overheated competition and face the consequences of very rapid growth. Once the economy slows down, I expect some of these companies to be acquired by stronger players. For European companies, this could also create opportunities to expand their global footprint and become truly global competitors at a comparatively lower cost.
There are still weaknesses in internationalisation as well. Some companies, for example, try to transfer their “996 culture” – working from nine in the morning to nine in the evening, six days a week – to Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, which aggravates working conditions.
What matters much more is close cooperation with customers and suppliers, as well as high speed. The traditional European model, with a clear distance between client and supplier, build-to-print approaches and long development cycles, is too slow for the future of mobility. European companies need to enter into genuine co-development processes earlier. As China is both the largest market and a huge source of expertise, some higher-value activities such as R&D could be partly relocated to China – as Renault has done with the Twingo, for example.
Johannes Messer: How do you assess megacasting: as a genuine revolution or rather as the next evolutionary step?
Min Chen: Every generation experiences its own technological “revolution”, which in the end often turns out to be more of an evolution. Megacasting should be viewed in the same sober way. The Giga Press is based on European engineering expertise, was industrialised by Tesla and was then taken up hard by companies such as NIO, Geely and XPeng.
Johannes Messer: What does this development mean for suppliers?
Min Chen: For suppliers, the technology itself is less decisive than its impact on value creation. When dozens of welded components are replaced by a single casting, responsibilities and decision-making rights shift. Whoever owns the casting owns the structure. If the OEM brings the technology in-house, the supplier simply loses the business. That is the board-level question – not the metallurgy.
In China, more than 90 die casting cells with locking forces of more than 6,000 tonnes are currently installed for large-format structural applications. However, less than 50 per cent of them are currently producing in series. I would therefore advise caution when investing in machines with locking forces of more than 4,000 tonnes unless there are long-term commitments from OEM customers.
Johannes Messer: Which technologies should European die casters keep a particularly close eye on in addition to megacasting?
Min Chen: If we look more closely at individual technologies, thixomoulding appears interesting. In mid-term, the process could become feasible for aluminium. If this succeeds, European die casters could gain a huge competitive advantage. Rheocasting is also likely to remain relevant, although initially more in niche applications. In addition, new approaches such as electromagnetic temperature control should be watched more closely.
In short, there is still a lot to do in the casting process: heat-treatment-free structural alloys, vacuum die casting, the fusion of cast structures with battery architecture and simulation methods that shorten development times. There is also still room for improvement in OEE and thermal processes, whose fluctuations continue to cause headaches from time to time.
Johannes Messer: What role does China play in the international die casting industry today?
Min Chen: Today, China no longer merely implements technologies from other countries; it is pioneering their application on an unprecedented scale. The country is a dominant force in megacasting for electric vehicles and is home to leading manufacturers of ultra-large die-casting machines – a key prerequisite for this technology.
Depending on the future industrial policy of the EU, more Chinese companies are likely to develop an interest in production sites in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe. However much they may not want to admit it, they need European partners to ensure the success of their operations there.
Johannes Messer: If you look at Europe from a Chinese perspective, which strategic priorities should the European aluminium foundry industry now set in order to remain internationally competitive?
Min Chen: There is no simple answer to that question. Europe is a mature market with great technological competence, capabilities and infrastructure. In the aluminium foundry industry, Europe has organisations that are leaders in casting processes and tooling technologies.
Eastern Europe offers very competitive cost structures, well-trained skilled workers and access to a large market. The foundry industry can benefit from this, as many die cast parts cannot be transported economically over long and risky supply chains.
If the Chinese are asked how they perceive Europe, they still describe it as technologically superb, but also as slow, expensive and regulated into caution.
Johannes Messer: What do you conclude from this?
Min Chen: In my view, this results in three priorities. First: the cost base and, above all, the energy supply. For suppliers, this is a question of survival. Higher energy costs are difficult to pass on to OEMs. There is also a risk that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, which will be introduced gradually from 2026, will burden Europe’s transformation while imported end products remain little affected – it shields the melter, not the supplier. Competitive and long-term available energy must therefore be the top priority.
Second: repositioning within the value chain. European companies should develop from classic build-to-print suppliers into system integrators and co-developers. Those who own the structural function of a casting before the OEM in-sources it. That is where the defensible margin currently lies.
Third, footprint and partnership: “in China for China,” using Chinese scale and technology selectively rather than pretending Europe can wall itself off — while tying European public support to capability and IP that stays here. Europe can learn from Beijing’s experience in industrial policy. European industrial policy is very slow to support local players in time with necessary adjustments.
Johannes Messer: In your view, what is the greatest danger for European industry?
Min Chen: In my experience, European industry is not losing to a single technology or a single competitor. It is losing to its own slowness, to the comfort of past successes and to the extremely labour friendly political environment. The real danger is being out-integrated and out-paced system-wide.
“From Regional Excellence to Global Relevance” is the right ambition. It asks European supplier to stop acting like regional vendors and become global system partners instead: fast, financed and energy-secure. People have watched this industry reinvent itself before. It can do so again – but not at the pace it is moving today.
