Georg Fischer AG is evaluating “all strategic options” for GF Casting Solutions, a collection of 13 metalcasting operations in Germany, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, and China that is one of the four vertical businesses that comprise the global organization.
The news emerged in the course of GF’s announcement of its plan to sell its GF Machining Solutions line to a rival manufacturer of CNC machine tools, United Grinding Group. That sale, at a projected cost of $740 million, will leave GF with the foundry and diecasting line, plus GF Building Flow Solutions and GF Piping Systems.
According to Georg Fischer, it is reorganizing its business to concentrate its resources in the supply of “sustainable water and flow solutions, addressing mission-critical solutions for industrial flow processes, sustainable water management in urban areas and energy efficiency in buildings.”
“As in the past, GF continues to adapt its portfolio in order to deliver superior value to all its stakeholders. The focus on Water and Flow Solutions reflects the great potential of these markets and the leadership position of GF thereof,” according to GF group chairman Yves Serra.
Just six months ago GF Casting Solutions committed to building a new high-pressure diecasting operation in Augusta, GA, to start production by 2027. The reported $184-million operation was announced by the Georgia Department of Economic Development, which is sponsoring an incentives package to the metalcaster estimated at $28 million. The plant will produce cast aluminum parts “with a special focus on aluminum focus on large structural components for the automotive industry.”
GF Casting Solutions is mainly a supplier of automotive castings, producing ferrous parts at plants in eastern Europe, and light-metal diecastings in the EU and China. It also produces investment castings for the aerospace and industrial gas turbine markets, in Switzerland.
Under different corporate identities, GF has had an intermittent presence in the North American market over recent decades. From 2017 until 2022 it was a joint-venture partner with Linamar Corp. in an automotive casting operation in Mills River, NC. That plant produces aluminum and magnesium structural and powertrain castings for automotive and commercial vehicle customers.
Earlier, in 2009, GF closed a nonferrous diecasting operation in Montreal.