European Foundry Industry Sentiment

May 2024:

European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment, May 2024: After months with a lot of motion, FISI shows side­ways move­ment in May.

In May 2024, the European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) exper­i­enced a minor decrease to 94.7 index points. This devel­op­ment reflects the second con­sec­ut­ive decrease for the FISI, the index exper­i­ences a down­ward move­ment of 0.4 points, set­tling at 94.7 com­pared to 95.1 in the pre­vi­ous month. The FISI has shown minor move­ment over the past month, reflect­ing a con­tin­ued side­ways trend in the mar­ket. This period of stag­na­tion under­scores the ongo­ing ten­sion within the industry, which per­sists des­pite some signs of sta­bil­iz­a­tion earlier this year. Mixed res­ults have been repor­ted, reflect­ing a diverse range of chal­lenges and oppor­tun­it­ies across the European Foundry land­scape. While some regions have exper­i­enced slight improve­ments in pro­duc­tion and demand, oth­ers con­tinue to face sig­ni­fic­ant obstacles, high­light­ing the uneven nature of the cur­rent mar­ket con­di­tions. Industry stake­hold­ers are focus­ing on internal optim­iz­a­tions and stra­tegic plan­ning to nav­ig­ate the cur­rent uncer­tain­ties. Com­pan­ies are closely mon­it­or­ing global mar­ket devel­op­ments, look­ing for any signs that could indic­ate a shift in demand and sup­ply chains. This pro­act­ive approach is essen­tial for ensur­ing the resi­li­ence of the industry dur­ing these chal­len­ging times. While the imme­di­ate future may seem uncer­tain, the European Foundry Industry con­tin­ues to demon­strate resi­li­ence. Uncer­tainty and expect­a­tions are the defin­ing para­met­ers at the moment. Des­pite the lack of sig­ni­fic­ant move­ment in the FISI, the industry remains hope­ful for a more pos­it­ive out­look in the lat­ter part of the year.

Mean­while the Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI) increased notice­able and now stands at — 0.39 index points. This marks the tenth con­sec­ut­ive month that the BCI has lingered below the crit­ical threshold of 0 index points. The recent pos­it­ive trend in the BCI has been primar­ily driven by a strong improve­ment in the pro­duc­tion trend observed over recent months. Mean­while, other con­trib­ut­ing factors, such as the assess­ment of export order-book levels and selling price expect­a­tions for the months ahead, have remained rel­at­ively stable. Although chal­lenges per­sist in these areas, the strong pro­duc­tion trend sig­ni­fies a pos­it­ive devel­op­ment amid the ongo­ing mar­ket uncertainties.

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