The statistics of Chinese foundry industry in 2017 was released by the Executive Vice President and Secretary-general Mr. Zhang Zhiyong of China Foundry Association during the 14th China Foundry Association Annual Congress.
The whole industry grows 4.7%
According to the data, the total output of all types of castings in China in 2017 reached 49.4 million tons, an increase of 4.7% from 2016. From the perspective of different materials, the output of gray cast iron reached 21.15 million tons in 2017 while it was 20.35 million tons in 2016, an increase of 3.9%; ductile iron (including vermicular) increased from 13.2 million tons to 13.75 million tons, an increase of 4.2%. Driven by rail transit, mining, metallurgical, heavy machinery, construction machinery and other industries, the output of steel castings grew rapidly, reaching 8.8%; due to the demand for “lightweight”, aluminum (magnesium) alloy castings increased by 5.8%, reaching 7.3 million tons; malleable cast iron, copper alloys and other castings were almost the same as last year.
From the perspective of the proportion of various types of casting material, the output of steel castings resumed growth in 2017, accounting for 11.3% of the total (10.8% in 2016); aluminum (magnesium) alloy castings production increased to 14.8% (14.6% in 2016); the proportion of ductile iron castings was 27.8%, with a slightly decline (28.0% in 2016).
According to changing demand structures in downstream industries, the automobile, construction machinery and rail transit contributed a lot to castings in 2017, which increased by 7.1%, 15.2% and 14.3% respectively. Among them, automobile industry directly increased one million tons of castings; the internal combustion engine and agricultural machinery contributed an increase of 0.8%; the mining, metallurgical and heavy machinery brought another 2.3% increase.
The demand proportion for various types of castings of the downstream industry in 2017 was: the proportion of automobile castings rose to 30.6% (29.9% in 2016), and in particular the production of trucks increased significantly.