A complex industry like metalcasting never matches overall business trends. It has its own operating rules, its own advantages, and its own vulnerabilities that confound the perspective of finance-based analysis.
Each year, during September and October, FM&T surveys metalcasters to measure the outlook of men and women responsible North America’s foundries and diecasting plants. We seek to identify the problems they face in their businesses and the economy, to learn what plans they're making for the coming business cycle, and to understand better they're expectations for the year ahead.
We surveyed readers by email over a period of six weeks, with a detailed study that focuses on the metalcasting business, its risks and prospects, and the internal and external factors shaping its progress. Their perspective — presented here — is valuable not only because of their insights and advantages, but because they occupy positions that are critical to the prospects of so many other elements of the global industrial economy.
