Market Niches Fuel Finishing Opportunities

摘要

With many commodity metal finishing jobs increasingly moving offshore, U.S.-based finishers are finding that niche markets—i.e., finding a need and filling it—offer growth opportunities and the chance to keep a bit of business at home. Indeed, niche markets may prove, collectively, to be the salvation of the U.S. finishing and coating industry, observers say. If the old, large-run commodity applications once represented the finishing and coating industry's foundation, that foundation is now an aggregate of dozens, if not hundreds, of small-volume, often high-tech applications. Among them: brake parts for hybrid autos; surface-finishing on extruded metal parts for die casters; steel box forms for home construction; organic finishes for aerospace; commemorative coins; and medical devices and instruments.