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ton, but the industry provides stability when compared to oil and gas producers. Fracking sand is influenced


The amount of sand destined for metalcasting facilities has remained fairly steady, but the industry’s total market share has steadily decreased during the fracking boom.


producers, sand is a material inte- gral to the metalcasting industry’s ability to run smoothly. This dif- ference in price has led some sand suppliers to focus primarily on


fracking operations, but the met- alcasting industry still has options in acquiring its necessary volume of sand. Also, sand destined for metalcasters is less profitable per


strongly by the price of gas and oil, meaning suppliers can go from not being able to produce enough sand to a situation where they can’t stop production quickly enough. In contrast, the price of castings has been relatively stable. Consequently, the oil and gas market can go through two or three economic cycles for every one of other industries based on a variety of worldwide economic factors. Addi- tionally, metalcasters tend to require a more standard amount of sand per month at fixed locations, while frack- ing demand can spike in disparate locations when particular wells require large amounts of sand.


Forecasting Sand’s Future Barring significant economic


unrest, the supply and pricing of metalcasting sand should remain


24 | MODERN CASTING December 2014


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