2024 Casting Industry Development Status and Import and Export Market Analysis

Casting is a kind of metal heat processing process that human beings mastered relatively early. In the future, the casting industry will be characterized by high concentration and specialization. The number of casting enterprises in the country will continue to decrease, backward production capacity will be eliminated at an accelerated pace, and enterprises with strength will expand their scale and improve their competitiveness through mergers and reorganizations.

In recent years, the global foundry industry has maintained a steady growth trend, mainly benefited from the industrialization process and the continuous improvement of manufacturing technology. China as the world's largest casting producer, the casting industry has maintained a high rate of development, and has made significant progress in technological innovation, quality improvement and energy utilization.

Casting is a kind of metal heat processing technology that human beings mastered relatively early. Casting is the liquid metal is poured into the casting cavity with the shape of the part, to be cooled and solidified, in order to obtain the part or blank method. The cast material is mostly solid but heated to liquid metal (example: copper, iron, aluminum, tin, lead, etc.), while the casting mold material can be sand, metal or even ceramic. Due to different requirements, the method used will also be different.

Casting industry development status and import and export market analysis

With the progress of science and technology and the vigorous development of the foundry industry, different casting methods have different casting preparation content. Take the most widely used sand casting as an example, casting preparation includes molding material preparation and molding, core making two major tasks. Sand casting for modeling, core-making of various raw materials, such as casting sand, sand binder and other auxiliary materials, as well as by their preparation into the sand, core sand, paint, etc. collectively referred to as modeling materials, modeling materials to prepare for the task is in accordance with the requirements of the casting, the nature of the metal, the selection of suitable raw sand, binder and auxiliaries, and then according to a certain proportion of the mixture into the sand and core sand with a certain performance. Commonly used sand mixing equipment include wheel mixer, counter-current sand mixer and continuous sand mixer. The latter is designed for mixing chemical self-hardening sand design, continuous mixing, sand mixing speed.

Specialized production of China's foundry industry has taken shape. Today has formed a number of distinctive specialized casting production enterprises. These enterprises mainly include: high compactness modeling + advanced core + duplex melting engine castings foundry; high-volume mechanized production of brake hubs, brake discs, exhaust pipes and other automotive castings plant; resin self-hardening sand as the main body of the machine tool, box, wind power and other large castings production plant; V process as the main body of the foundry and the disappearance of mold casting plant; metal-type or metal-type sand-coated crankshafts, grinding ball-based production plant; Silicone sol or ethyl silicate for the binder of high-grade investment casting plant; water glass for the binder of the ordinary steel parts casting plant; centrifugal ductile iron casting plant and centrifugal gray iron casting plant; non-ferrous alloy sand casting and pressing (high / low / poor) casting plant and so on.

The main demand side of the casting market includes industries such as automotive manufacturing, aerospace, energy, construction, mining and metallurgy. The automotive manufacturing industry is one of the major demand-side of the casting market, especially the key components such as automobile engines, chassis, and bodies require a large number of castings to support them. In addition, the demand for high-performance castings continues to increase with the growing aerospace industry. The energy industry's demand for castings mainly comes from thermal power, nuclear power and wind power and other fields, all kinds of power generation equipment, transmission lines and nuclear energy facilities need a large number of castings to support the operation.

China's casting machine from the import amount is much larger than the export gradually changed to the pattern of export amount is larger than the import, indicating that China's casting machine industry has been rapid development; but the number of exports has been larger than the number of imports. According to China Customs data: in 2021 China casting machine import quantity for 342 units, import amount is 110.14 million U.S. dollars; export quantity for 4344 units, export amount is 172.2 million U.S. dollars. 2022 January to September China casting machine import quantity for 338 units, import amount is 109.95 million U.S. dollars; export quantity for 2598 units, export amount is 159.02 million U.S. dollars. 

In 2021, the average price of China casting machine export is only 39,600 US dollars per unit, while the average price of import reaches 322,100 US dollars per unit, the difference is 282,400 US dollars per unit; In January-September 2022, the average price of China casting machine export is 61,200 US dollars per unit, while the average price of import reaches 325,300 US dollars per unit, the difference is 264,100 US dollars per unit. 2021, the average price of China casting machine import is 338 units; the export quantity is 2598 units; the export amount is 159.02 million US dollars. 2021, the average price of cold chamber Die casting machine, billet continuous casting machine, slab continuous casting machine, other billet continuous casting machine, other casting machine export amount of $64,614,800, $15,548,700, $834,800, $2,633,900, $88,573,700; January-September 2022, cold chamber die casting machine, billet continuous casting machine, slab continuous casting machine, other billet continuous casting machine, other casting machine export amount of $50,000 respectively. Casting Machine export amounted to USD 56,078,200,000, USD 5,718,500,000, USD 12,425,500,000, USD 2,609,600,000, USD 82,196,600,000 respectively.

Casting industry future development trend forecast

In the future, the foundry industry will be characterized by high concentration and specialization. The number of foundry enterprises in the country will continue to decrease, and backward production capacity will be eliminated at an accelerated pace, while enterprises with strength will expand their scale and improve their competitiveness through merger and reorganization. At the same time, the foundry industry will focus more and more on greening and environmental protection, through the use of environmentally friendly materials and processes, reduce energy consumption and emissions, to achieve sustainable development. In addition, the development of intelligence will also become an important trend in the foundry industry, through the introduction of intelligent manufacturing and digital technology to improve production efficiency and product quality.

In summary, although the casting industry market is facing some challenges, the overall market size is still large and shows a trend of transformation and upgrading and high-quality development. Enterprises need to pay close attention to market changes and technology development trends, strengthen R&D and innovation, and improve independent innovation capability and technology level to cope with future market competition.