SA FOUNDRIES FOLLOW GLOBAL TRENDS

North West, Friday 15 March 2013: Delegates at the Metal Casting Conference 2013 heard yesterday that the challenges faced by foundries in South Africa are not unique in the global context and that growth in the industry will come from closer attention to the needs of foundry customers.

The Metal Casting Conference kicked off yesterday at Kwa Maritane and followed the 3rd BRICS Foundry Forum. The event is being co-hosted by the National Foundry Technology Network (NFTN), an initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry, the South African Institute of Foundrymen and University of Johannesburg, Metal Casting Conference and is fully subscribed.

Keynote speaker Alfred Spada presented an overview of the global foundry industry, saying that production volumes in the USA have now returned to pre-recession levels. China is the largest metal casting producer and India has grown its market on the back of an emphasis on the sector and growth in the automotive sector. He indicated that there is a general trend towards greater localisation across the global foundry market.

“One of the greatest strengths of the foundry industry is that there are so many variables in the process and the ability to find great solutions for our customers is almost infinite,” said Spada, who serves as Director of Marketing, Communications and PR at the American Foundry Society.

“As an industry, we need to actively look for opportunities to show our clients where castings can improve their manufacturing processes, efficiencies and/or costs. Impressions of foundrymen worldwide include descriptions like antiquated, dirty and dangerous, yet there is so much more to the industry,” said Spada.

These impressions are similar amongst South African foundry customers surveyed by Dr Shawn Cunningham, a partner at Mesopartner, who works with the NFTN to promote competitiveness and technology upgrades within the foundry industry.

“There are many manufacturers in South Africa who want to localise and this will also be encouraged by the Preferential Procurement Act. Already, state-owned companies are demanding greater local content. This requires investment in new technology and new partnerships between foundries, their customers and universities,” said Cunningham.

The engagement has revealed that foundries need to focus on their customers’ needs. “Foundries must apply front-end engineering to reduce the weight of their castings and to develop products that are designed to be manufactured at a competitive price,” concluded Cunningham.

Adrie El-Mohamadi, Project Leader of the NFTN, says that in the day-to-pressures of running foundries, the importance of focusing on customer’s needs cannot be overemphasised.

Andrew Turner, General Secretary of the World Foundry Organisation, said that continuity of supply was a critical issue for foundries worldwide. “Companies that survived the global economic crisis did so by maintaining low overheads, but this puts them at a disadvantage given the need for transparent and sophisticated supply chains,” he said.

Turner tempered this by pointing out that lean, hungry foundries can benefit from their ability to be agile and flexible. “Volatility is going to become a permanent feature of our industry, yet this could be at odds with a desire for an integrated supply chain. A recent study showed that 70% of executives expressed dissatisfaction with the resilience of their own supply chains,” said Turner.

Turner cited an example of how a foundry reduced the cost of a casting process and significantly improved the operational efficiency of the final casting by simply re-examining the brief provided by the client. “Successful supply chain management depends on adaptive operating models, efficient costing models, excellent execution, the ability to anticipate and mitigate risk and finally, the ability of foundries to recognise, manage and profit from change,” he said.

Other discussions yesterday focused on solutions for waste in the foundry sector, with perspectives from American and Brazilian speakers.  Perspectives were also offered on ways to lower costs per casting, as well as ways to achieve higher economic efficiency in melting using modern technology. A Japanese company showcased a new moulding process developed which uses aeration sand filling and efficiency in foundries was also covered in terms of material and energy efficiency.

Prepared and distributed on behalf of the Metal Casting Conference by Corporate Communication. Contact Despina Harito on despina@corpcomm.co.za or 011 452 1840 or 084 453 1755.

For further information about the conference, programme and speakers, please visit

www. metalcastingconference.co.za
About NFTN

The NFTN is a national dti initiative that facilitates the development of a globally-competitive South African foundry industry through appropriate skills training, technology transfer and diffusion of state-of-the-art technologies. www.nftn.co.za

About SAIF

The SAIF is a non-profit organisation that has been active within South Africa, initially as a branch of the Institute of British Foundrymen since 1939, then as an independent institute since 1964. www.foundries.org.za

About UJ MCTS

The Metal Casting Technology Station (MCTS), in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg, is a non-profit government initiative. MCTS is the leading provider of technology transfer assistance to SMME’s in the metal casting industry. The Metal Casting Technology Station supports and assists foundries in terms of industrial project and technology transfer of metal casting. Through this initiative, we are instrumental in increasing the global competitiveness of South African Foundries, expanding job opportunities and stimulating growth in the metal casting industry.

www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/engineering/MetalCastingTechnologyStation