European Foundry Industry Sentiment

March 2024:

After a third con­sec­ut­ive month of growth, FISI now stands at 95.8 index points.

In March 2024, the European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) exper­i­enced another increase, with an uptick to 95.8 index points. This devel­op­ment reflects the third con­sec­ut­ive increase for the FISI, the index exper­i­ences an increase of 1.8 points, set­tling at 95.8 com­pared to 94.0 in the pre­vi­ous month. The cur­rent pos­it­ive trend in the European Foundry Industry can be attrib­uted to two key factors, one stat­ist­ical and the other eco­nomic. Firstly, it appears that the European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index has bot­tomed out in pre­vi­ous months, indic­at­ing a shift towards an upward tra­ject­ory. Secondly, sev­eral foundries across Europe have scaled back their pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies over the past year. This tense situ­ation through­out 2023 has begun to alle­vi­ate in some regions, par­tic­u­larly as there has been a notice­able reduc­tion in raw mater­ial prices. Col­lect­ively, the industry eagerly anti­cip­ates a boost from poli­cy­makers in Brus­sels. How­ever, it is import­ant to note that this much-needed stim­u­lus may not mater­i­al­ize until Autumn, when the newly elec­ted European par­lia­ment­ary and com­mis­sion mem­bers com­mence their duties. In the interim, it is imper­at­ive for industry stake­hold­ers to remain vigil­ant and pro­act­ive in address­ing ongo­ing chal­lenges. By doing so, they can ensure the industry’s resi­li­ence in the face of adversity.

Mean­while the Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI) increased notice­able and now stands at ‑0.30 index points. This marks the ninth con­sec­ut­ive month that the BCI has lingered below the crit­ical threshold of 0 index points. The pos­it­ive trend in the BCI primar­ily stems from the improve­ment of the assess­ment of export order-book levels, but still a reflec­tion of per­sist­ent chal­lenges in this aspect. Addi­tion­ally, the selling price expect­a­tions for the months ahead have increased over the past months and sup­ports the increase of the BCI.

The FISI – European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator – is the earli­est avail­able com­pos­ite indic­ator provid­ing inform­a­tion on the European foundry industry per­form­ance. It is pub­lished by CAEF the European Foundry Asso­ci­ation every month and is based on sur­vey responses of the European foundry industry. The CAEF mem­bers are asked to give their assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation in the foundry sec­tor and their expect­a­tions for the next six months.

The BCI – Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator – is an indic­ator pub­lished by the European Com­mis­sion. The BCI eval­u­ates devel­op­ment con­di­tions of the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor in the euro area every month and uses five bal­ances of opin­ion from industry sur­vey: pro­duc­tion trends, order books, export order books, stocks and pro­duc­tion expectations.

CAEF Con­tact:

Johannes Kappes
Sec­ret­ary Com­mis­sion for Eco­nom­ics & Stat­ist­ics
phone: +49 211 68 71 — 291
mail: johannes.kappes@caef.eu