As Doug Kurkul (CEO, AFS) reports in an article for Modern Casting, the American foundry industry finished with total sales of $47 billion. Responsible for this: Intense and encouraging growth in demand for castings combined with major challenges.
Key challenges included maintaining staffing levels, dealing with massive price fluctuations in materials, components and energy, and other supply chain disruptions.
Despite the challenges, US castings sales grew by an estimated 9.5% year-over-year as foundries from coast to coast impressively met the economy's massive demand for highly engineered castings.
In his forecast, Kurkul expects demand for castings to remain strong. Although housing construction has slowed and auto sales are temporarily down, demand is strong in most other markets where castings are used. In addition, the AFS-supported Infrastructure Investment Act passed in December 2021 is leading to new projects. All of this combined means a good order book for many North American foundries.
In a recent survey of foundry leaders about the year ahead, 63% of foundries confirmed expectations of rising sales in 2023, although caution is also at play, as even the most optimistic metal foundries expect a recession in 2023.
Traditionally, recessions and higher interest rates lead to a sharp slowdown in industry activity, and in the 1970s and 1980s these slowdowns led to permanent closures of some foundries. However, the vast majority of foundries surveyed expect a recession in 2023 to be less severe and to have only a minor impact on casting sales.
AFS expects casting sales to increase by 4.3% in 2023. Additional information can be found in Modern Casting and highly detailed data and forecasts can be found in the January 2023 AFS Metalcasting Forecast & Trends, which is free to AFS corporate members and can be purchased from the AFS Store at AFSInc.org.
Investment in plant and equipment
Growing investment in plant and equipment. In line with cautious optimism, 96% of foundries plan to invest in 2023. In 38% of foundries, these investments will exceed $1 million.
The areas where the most investment will be made include: Grinders, robots, conveyors, laboratory equipment, cranes and hoists, environmental controls, air compressors, inspection and testing equipment, blast cleaning equipment, sand preparation equipment and moulding equipment.
In this context, Doug Kurkul also recommends a visit to this year's Metalcasting Congress in Cleveland, which will take place in 2023 from 25 to 27 April
