1. Issues and Ideas

2023 Metalcasting Business Outlook

Dec. 20, 2022
To evaluate the state of the industry we surveyed foundry and diecasting managers and decisionmakers about their activities during 2022 and their expectations for 2023 — asking them to identify how they are faring and the challenges they face.

The end of one year and the start of a new one present a natural moment for inquiry: What has been accomplished? What can be expected?  This sort of evaluation is not confined to the clock or calendar, of course: we see it happening daily in finance, quarterly in technology and business. Many people make such a personal evaluation daily.

A business like metalcasting needs regular reevaluation too, and that’s the purpose behind the FM&T Metalcasting Business Outlook we present here.

Metalcasting is more than a business, of course, and its status or progress is tracked over decades or centuries. Metalcasters themselves understand this. They know what is working well and what needs to be enhanced. They know how the industry and technology is vulnerable to competition, and they recognize the particular strengths that metalcasting can rely on to thrive. We’ve made metalcasters our source of understanding for just that reason.

Each year, Foundry Management & Technology surveys our metalcasting readers to gain some perspective – if not consensus – on the state of affairs in North America’s foundry and diecasting operations. We’re proud of the audience we have developed and maintain, and we rely on their insights about the work they do. We collect facts, but we find discern knowledge from the concerns expressed, and the expectations or concerns raised, by men and women working in foundries and diecasting plants.

It’s an effort to go beyond the facts, to understand not only the present circumstances of these operations, but also the underlying conditions shaping those businesses. We also seek to understand how these facts are received and understood by metalcasting decision-makers. We want their assessments of current conditions and we want to record the issues that give them confidence or concern, in their own businesses, in their supply chains and markets, and in the economy. We want to learn what decisions they face in the business cycle just ahead, and to understand better their expectations for the future of their enterprises.

We surveyed readers by email over a period of four weeks during Q4 2022. We are confident that the 2023 Outlook respondents reflect the metalcasting industry we cover, and reliably represent the range and variety of operations included in it.

Download the full FM&T Metalcasting Business Outlook report for 2023.