To onlookers, the world foundry industry has received something akin to a jump-start this year. Like other markets directly related to industrial activity, the foundries sector followed the downturn seen in construction and refractories markets in late 2008 and the resulting stagnation in 2009. But its fall was not as pronounced as that of other markets like ceramics and refractories, and 2010 has seen some true demand return to the sector largely from automotive industry, its biggest end market.
Part of this jump-start comes from the protection afforded by China through its insatiable hunger for industrial development. The Asian country’s castings output accounts for more than a third of global production, which totalled almost 60m. tonnes in 2008.
Without China’s production, Modern Casting estimates that castings production would have contracted by as much as 5.8% in 2008 far more damaging than the actual 1.5% contraction the market saw,...