Survival of the Fittest Diecaster
North American diecasters are becoming creative and fl exible to succeed in a changing industry.
Shannon Wetzel, Senior Editor
zinc die casting shipments dropped from 1,497,000 tons to 990,000 tons, according to forecasting fi rm Strate- casts Inc., Ft. Myers, Fla. (Fig. 1). The automotive industry—which accounts for about half of all die casting ship- ments—is weak, other diecasting cus- tomers have gone out of business, and jobs continue to move to China and other lower cost countries. “It’s a competitive business we are
F
in,” said Andy Stroh, vice president of Stroh Precision Die Casting LLC, Mauston, Wis. To combat these challenges, do-
mestic diecasters have found ways to make themselves more competitive in a global marketplace, offering more value to their customers while also working to improve their production costs and lead times. “The guys who have failed are typi-
cally diecasters that were producing tons of metal—commodities. They didn’t bring anything special to the party,” said Jim Merritt, an industry marketing and sales consultant. “The diecasters that are surviving are proac- tive and lead the industry.”
Entering Low Volume
Many diecasters have survived by avoiding the automotive industry. “The companies that had a sig-
nifi cant amount of business in the automotive industry got nailed,” Merritt said. “Companies that man- aged their business with respect to
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010
Fig. 1. U.S. diecasting production took a hit in 2009, and it is forecast to take a few years before returning to peak levels.
METAL CASTING DESIGN AND PURCHASING 39
or many U.S. diecasters, the recent recession has caused a struggle for survival. From 2008 to 2009, total tonnage of aluminum, magnesium and
market share in automotive and other markets survived.” Stroh Precision avoids most auto-
motive parts, focusing instead on mili- tary, aerospace, recreation, lawn and garden and hand gun products. Other diecasters try to keep their automotive customers in balance with the rest of their business. “We target automotive at 50% and
have done a good job at keeping that number there,” said Todd Olson, direc- tor of sales and marketing for Twin City Die Castings, Minneapolis. “We have to pursue new markets when we get to the edge on automotive.” Earning new business in those new
markets takes adaptability and ingenu- ity, according to Merritt. “Another aspect of survivors is that
they are fl exible to go into different marketplaces in different ways,” Merritt said. He sees new markets opening up in several areas, including low volume diecasting, which is an area Stroh Precision is focusing on under its new business strategy. “We are looking for low-volume
jobs that really need precision casting,” Stroh said. “With lower volumes, we need machines with quicker set up.” To that end, Stroh Precision is ex-
amining how to speed up its tooling changes to be more effi cient and better
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