Due to the prolonged global Covid-19 epidemic, the members of the BRICS Foundry Association have not met offline for three years, but the online meeting has never been interrupted. And during the past week on May 26th 2022, BRICS Foundry Association just had its online executive meeting successfully.
The online group meeting has the below member associations, they are Mr.Devendra Jain and Subodh Panchal from The Institute of India Foundrymen,Ivan Dibrov and Andrew Dibrov,from Russian Association of Foundrymen,Janley Kotze from South Africa Institute of Foundrymen,Roberto João de Deus from Brazilian Foundry Association, as well as Thomas Fritsch, CEO from Foundry Planet, our media friend to join us. The meeting was chaired by Mr. GAO Wei, the executive vice president of China Foundry Association.
Igor Kulkov from the Industrial Innovation Club of the UNIDO Centre of the Russian Federation, Paresh Parmar from Foundry Review, Thomas Fritsch from Foundry Planet and Libo Zhang, Thomas Wei Gao, Xing Chen and Yuxin Han from China Foundry Association headquarter and Russian branch also join the meeting. As the initiator of this online meeting, Mr.Libo Zhang, President of China Foundry Association invites and introduces Mr.Decheng Wang from China Academy of Machinery
China Foundry Association initiated the meeting along with the 6th BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting which was held on May 23, during which the ministers of the industrial authorities of the five BRICS countries conducted in-depth discussions on the theme of "enhancing innovation cooperation in the field of the new industrial revolution and promoting a stronger, healthier and more resilient sustainable development". They discussed and jointly issued the Joint Declaration of the Sixth BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting, and encouraged the BRICS countries to further enhance industrial cooperation, jointly create an open, fair, dynamic and resilient development environment, and build a stable, safe and mutually beneficial industry supply chain cooperation system to promote and accelerate the recovery and growth of the global economy. On May 24, the 7th BRICS Culture Ministers Meeting and the opening ceremony of the 2022 BRICS Vocational Skills Competition kick-off were held successively. On May 25, the BRICS Space Cooperation Joint Committee was established to officially start the sharing and exchange of constellation data. This "natural match" has brought the BRICS cooperation to a new level.
The close liaison between the BRICS countries has led to the blossoming of cooperation in various fields. The convening of the working conference of the BRICS Foundry Industry Federation today is just in time.
Ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all countries over the world have been affected by the worldwide policy of suspending production and work halt. Most recently the turbulent international situation has also caused the prices of energy and bulk raw materials to soar. Under various unfavorable factors, global foundry industry and its workers have overcome various difficulties to meet the needs of clients and to deliver the goods. The manufacturers provide products and services, ensure the effective operation of the industrial chain and supply chain, and make huge contribution to foundry industry. Based on the latest world casting production statistics, in 2020, the casting output of the five BRICS countries is 69.97 million tons, accounting for 66% of the total global casting production. This is a record high, worthy of the founding industry's pride. Among them, the development of China's foundry industry has steadily increased: the output of castings in 2019 was 48.75 million tons, while the output of castings in 2020 was 51.95 million tons. And the output of castings in 2021 is expected to reach 54 million tons. The cooperation space of the foundry industry of the BRICS countries will become larger and larger.
As the current chairman of the BRICS Foundry Association, Mr. Zhang, Libo said in his speech that China is the BRICS chair country in 2022, and "building high-quality partnerships to jointly create a new era of global development" is the theme of the BRICS China Year. As the secretariat unit of the BRICS Foundry Association, China Foundry Association has always been committed to promoting industry exchanges and technological progress among the BRICS countries. Under the changing situation of the COVID epidemic and the continuous turbulent international situation, the development of the foundry industry has also become uncertain in some aspect. Therefore, it is even more necessary for us to further strengthen cooperation, promote economic recovery, and promote efficient and pragmatic cooperation. According to the spirit of the Joint Declaration of the Sixth BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting, we should continue to strengthen cooperation in the foundry industry chain and supply chain, continue to strengthen cooperation in digital transformation of the foundry industry, and increase green and low-carbon cooperation in the foundry industry. Through the constant development of online and offline casting vocational skills competitions, the cooperation of vocational education and the cooperation of international foundry industry group standards will be promoted.
At the meeting, Mr.Wang, Decheng, the Chinese executive committee member of the BRICS Foundry Federation and chairman of the China Machinery Research Institute Group Co., Ltd., formally met with members of other associations and media partners. As the current leader of a state-owned enterprise in China, Wang Decheng has been engaged in standardization work since 1985. Since 2015, he has served as the chairman of ISO/TC 10/SC 6, and has participated in the formulation of a number of IEC international standards. The technical product document standards provide a guarantee to the transition of product design and manufacturing from 2D to 3D.
Technical exchanges between industries, market development and expansion are inseparable from standardization work. Today, Mr. Wang Decheng joins the BRICS Foundry Association as a standardization expert and serves as the Chinese executive member, which will definitely contribute new vision and strength to the high-quality development of the foundry industry.
At the meeting, representatives of member countries introduced the current situation of foundry industry in each country, and explored how to cope with the new problems faced by the development of their own industries at this stage. The formulation and promotion of the joint promotion, development and implementation of digital twins among industry enterprises, as well as the third BRICS Industrial Innovation Competition and the framework of the "smart manufacturing" track were fully discussed. During the exchange, the participants also had an in-depth exchange of new changes in the development of the foundry industry under the global epidemic. At the same time, they put forward the urgent needs of upstream and downstream supply and demand, industrial chain recovery, etc., and jointly discussed measures to deal with the problem, reached consensus and promoted cooperation.
Through online interaction, the member states of the BRICS Foundry Association have exchanged information, learned about supply and demand, got to know each other, and clarified the trend, laying a solid foundation for the in-depth cooperation in the foundry industry of various countries for the next step. As emerging markets and major developing countries, the BRICS countries shoulder the historical mission of improving people's well-being at home and promoting world peace and development. They advocate the establishment of high-quality partnerships and jointly create a new era of global development. Although the epidemic has prevented us from communicating face-to-face with each other, it will not block our exchanges and cooperation, nor will it block the progress and development of the industry. Hope the epidemic will end soon, and the time to talk face to face will come soon.