The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) records a sig­ni­fic­ant upward cor­rec­tion with a plus of 2.76 index points in Feb­ru­ary. Over­all, the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation and expect­a­tions are bright­en­ing across all mater­i­als. Mean­while, the lat­ter, com­ing from a low base, show the strongest increase. 

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) remained at the pre­vi­ous months level of 103.1 points. How­ever, fer­rous and non-fer­­rous metal foundries show dif­fer­ent devel­op­ments in Janu­ary, which equal­ise in total.

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) moves side­ways in Devem­ber. A minor improve­ment by 0.1 points brings the index to a value of 103.1 points. Thus, it is the second month in a row without major changes in the over­all cal­cu­la­tion. How­ever, single com­pon­ents of the FISI develop differently. 

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) moves side­ways in Novem­ber. A minor improve­ment by 0.2 points brings the index to a value of 103.0 points. While busi­ness expect­a­tions for the next six months have declined again, assess­ments of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation sur­pris­ingly increased in Novem­ber. Over­all, both factors equal­ise each other in the cal­cu­la­tion of the FISI.

Look­ing ahead to the year 2023, there are stronger signs of a reces­sion in sev­eral European eco­nom­ies. It remains unclear how strongly demand for cast com­pon­ents will decline. While order books are still at a good level in many mar­kets, incom­ing orders are already declin­ing notice­ably at the onset of winter.

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) decreased by 2.6 points in Septem­ber and reaches a value of 104.0 points. This marks the low­est index value in the last 21 months, while it is the sharpest month to month decline since March 2020. Both the expect­a­tions for the next six months and the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation dropped sig­ni­fic­antly. The excep­tion­ally strong drop is also char­ac­ter­ised by the fact that the rat­ings point in the same dir­ec­tion across all metals.

The FISI is still stable in the hol­i­day month of August. How­ever, with the onset of the heat­ing sea­son and a steady slow­down in the eco­nomy, the com­ing period is expec­ted to be extremely rough. Thus, more and more busi­nesses are now being really hit by energy costs as old con­tracts expire and the num­ber of those who have to pro­duce under the new con­di­tions is now stead­ily increasing.

There has never been a greater dif­fer­ence between the assess­ment of the situ­ation and the expect­a­tions since the begin­ning of the data col­lec­tion. While the cur­rent situ­ation is still con­sidered pos­it­ive by many foundries due to the good order situ­ation in the mech­an­ical engin­eer­ing sec­tor, the expect­a­tions for the next six months are on the down­turn. Ten­sions are rising, espe­cially as signs of a slow­down in demand are intensifying.