The world production of castings is close to 113 million tons in 2018

italpres, which for over 70 years has been operating in the design, construction of molds and die-casting of aluminum and zinc alloys, is always careful to the numbers of the reference market. In 2018, the world production of castings (ferrous and non-ferrous) reached a volume of 112.7 million tons, marking a growth rate of + 2.6% compared to the previous year which, in absolute terms, represents an increase of approximately 2.9 million tons.

According to the results of the Census of World Casting Production published last December by the magazine Modern Casting, the most important contribution to growth came from the ferrous castings sector which, thanks to an annual growth of + 2.7%, recorded a production equal to 90.044 million tons.

The numbers of non-ferrous metal foundries  

The production of non-ferrous castings in 2018 remained substantially stable at the levels of the previous year with a volume of 22,247 tons (+ 0.2%). The overall production of cast iron castings stood at 78.3 million tons (+ 2.6%), mainly supported by ductile iron (spheroidal and malleable: + 5.7% at 28.9 million tons) and to a lesser extent by gray (+ 0.8% to 49.4 million tons). The contribution of steel castings to growth was + 3.8% for a volume of 11.7 million tons. The output of aluminum castings closed 2018 with a negative rate (-1.1%) and 18.8 million tons; the production of copper castings (2 million tons) had a rebound equal to about 11%; the production of zinc castings achieved a modest increase of + 1.7% and a volume of 678,000 tons.

Of the 28 countries that participated in the survey in the last two years, 19 reported a production expansion compared to 2017. Overall, the top 10 producers in 2018 achieved 86% of the world castings output. The ranking of the top 10 for 2018 remained unchanged compared to 2017, with the exception of Brazil, which overtook Italy in 9th place. The production of China, which is confirmed by far the largest producer in the world with a total volume of castings of 4.3 million tons (44% of world production), in 2018 had a setback. India maintained second place with 13.4 million tons and robust growth of over 11%; with the same rate of increase, the United States maintains the third position (10.8 million tons). Japan follows in 4th place (5.6 million tons); in 5th place Germany (5.4 million tons); in 6th place Russia (4.2 million tons); Mexico ranked 7th (2.9 million tons); Korea (2.5 million tons) at the 8th; Brazil ranks 9th (2.3 million tons); Italy ranks 10th (2.3 million tons). With reference to the number of active foundries in the world, the survey lists 45,954 production units, mainly represented by cast iron, aluminum and steel foundries.

In terms of average productivity per company, expressed as the ratio between the volumes produced between individual countries and the relative number of active foundries, Germany confirmed its position as world leader with 10,309 tons per plant, followed by the United States with 5,5559 tons per plant. , Russia and Mexico over 3,600 tons. The rest of the ranking shows an average productivity per plant of around 2,000 tons. At the bottom of the table is China, with just 1,898 tons.

But to characterize a company there are also a series of services that cannot be taken for granted. The company from Lumezzane (province of Brescia) is well aware of this, which has always focused on a flexible mentality and the contribution of competent staff to be able to welcome the technological innovations of the sector over time.

Quality die casting and reduction of production times

italpres takes care of the production of die casting parts from the co-design,  the development and manufacturing of the required equipment for casting, to the finishing and packaging, thus obtaining a significant reduction of leadtimes.

One responsible

With all required production departments available internally, italpres is the single point of contact for the customer. A remarkable advantage in terms of communication and essential in preventing misunderstandings between customer and suppliers, but also key to the utmost confidential treatment of all sensitive project data.

Technical support 

With its qualified staff, highly experienced in the field of die casting, italpres assists its customers in designing and engineering both the parts to be produced by die casting processes, as well as the required equipment for molding and auxiliary operations.