Typical US-shop tooling is $15k–$80k for 1–8 cavity P20, and $80k–$200k+ for large, complex, or 8–16 cavity tools. Piece price is $0.20–$1.50 for most mid-volume commodity parts, about $0.15 only on small/simple/high-cavity work, and $2–$6+ on large, engineering-grade, or 1-cavity parts. The tool is one-time; piece price is what you pay every run. Break-even against overseas suppliers is usually hit around 30,000–80,000 annual parts once you account for shipping, duties, inventory carrying cost, and program management overhead.
The short answer
Every injection-molded part has two costs: the tooling (one-time, typically $15k–$80k for 1–8 cavity P20; $80k–$200k+ for large/complex/8–16 cavity) and the piece price (usually $0.20–$1.50 for mid-volume commodity parts). About $0.15 only shows up on small, simple, high-cavity work. Large, engineering-grade, or 1-cavity parts run $2–$6+. The piece price is what you pay every run.
If you're comparing against an overseas quote that looks 30% cheaper per-part, you're probably not counting the shipping, tariffs, quality escapes, inventory carrying cost, and the six hours a week your program manager spends on time-zone math.
What drives tool cost
- Part size — bigger parts need bigger steel, bigger mold base, bigger press.
- Cavitation — a 4-cavity tool is about 2.35× the cost of a single-cavity in this model. Piece price drops with the square root of cavities, not 1:1.
- Complexity — side actions, lifters, threads, and fine features each add $3k–$15k.
- Tool class — Class 101 (for 1M+ shots) uses hardened steel and costs 40–80% more than Class 104.
- Material — glass-filled and abrasive resins need harder tool steel, which is more expensive to cut.
What drives piece price
The per-part cost is a function of cycle time × machine rate + material + packaging. A 30-gram ABS part on a 180-ton press with a 22-second cycle runs about $0.38 in machine time. Add $0.12 material, $0.05 packaging, and you're at $0.55 per part. That math doesn't change much whether you're quoting in Utah or Guangdong — what changes is the machine rate, the labor component, and the freight.
When does reshoring pay off?
We can build a landed-cost comparison when it helps. A typical breakeven picture looks like this:
- For parts under $0.50 overseas, breakeven rarely makes sense on piece-price alone — the reshoring argument is about lead time and supply certainty.
- For parts $0.50–$2.00 overseas, domestic is usually within 10–20% on piece price. Shipping volatility, tariffs, and inventory carrying cost typically close the gap.
- For parts $2.00+ overseas, domestic often wins outright on a per-part basis.
Hidden costs people forget
- Ocean freight has swung 4× in the last five years.
- Carrying 3 months of safety stock ties up working capital — usually 5–8% of program cost annually.
- Quality escapes caught at your dock cost 10× what they cost caught at the press.
- A tool stuck in a port is a tool you can't shoot parts from.