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International Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


A


delegation of government officials and metal casters from South Africa recently visited our of- fices. The group is trying to develop a roadmap for their metalcasting industry. They believe the future of their economy is in manufacturing, and they want metalcasting to be at the heart of the effort. But to build the roadmap,


the South Africans are look- ing for a country to emulate. Before their pilgrimage to the U.S., they sought the opinions of experts across the globe on what casting industries they should consider as a men- tor. While they heard strong support for Germany, Japan and China, the South Africans said they were surprised there wasn’t a louder endorsement for the U.S. Many of their gov- ernment statistics pointed them to the U.S. (it was, in fact, the country from which a lot of South Africa’s innovation had emigrated), but the experts questioned the choice to come to the U.S. After their visits, the South


According to a South African delegation, the U.S. offers the strongest


American Foundry Society). Casting purchasers were herald- ing the merits of our foreign competitors, threatening us to reach ridiculous price levels without a level playing field for quality or delivery. We were shoved into partnerships with firms based in low-cost countries to maintain peace with our customers. We weren’t driving our own businesses; instead our actions were dictated by our customers, who didn’t have our best interests at heart and, as it appears to- day, didn’t even have their own best interests at heart. I am here to sound the


combination of metalcasting- specific education and training, research and development, technical competence, production strength, diversity in capabilities and consistency in quality.


African delegation said they indeed made the correct choice in visiting the U.S. According to the delegation, the U.S. offers the strongest combination of metalcasting-specific education and training, research and development, technical competence, production strength, diversity in capabilities and consistency in quality. Ask any metalcaster in the U.S., and they will tell you the same thing. But the fact that the delegation didn’t initially re-


ceive this message from the international community is disturbing. Even more disturbing is that you—the designers and buyers of castings—would probably agree with the international community. The struggle for our metalcasting indus-


try is that it is finally recovering mentally from the shellacking it took from the in- ternational marketplace the last 20 years. We were assaulted by foreign competi- tion from Mexico, Brazil, China and India (to name a few), and we were forced into a defensive position to hold off the low-cost competition that grew its marketshare from 7% of casting demand in 1998 to 23% in 2007 (according to statistics from the


July/August 2011


horn that the North Ameri- can metalcasting industry has recovered from the bar- rage and has begun to en- gage internationally again. The tidal wave that pushed everything to low-cost com- petitors appears now to be a wave pool flowing in both directions.This is the way it should be, and this will al- low metalcasters to engage in the international market- place on even terms. Evidence that North American metalcasters are


more comfortable with the state of our market was seen at last month’s GIFA trade fair in Dusseldorf, Germany. As the world’s largest metalcasting exhibition, recent GIFAs haven’t seen a strong contingent from North America. This year, our metalcasting industry came out in force to inspect the tech- nology, network with colleagues from across the globe and set the direction for their businesses. This level of engagement makes me excited about


the future and allows U.S. metalcasting to maintain its throne as the leading global metalcasting industry.


eDitOriAl


Alfred Spada, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief


If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in Metal Casting Design & Purchasing, email me at aspada@afsinc.org.


MetAl CAsting Design & PurChAsing 7


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