The investment casting section of the European casting group CAEF, meeting recently in Budapest, collected economic information and trends for the investment casting industry. The results were a mixed bag but tended to be somewhat pessimistic, with the United Kingdom and Finland retaining their optimism for the coming year. For reporting purposes, European foundries were divided into two groups: Group A representing 79 foundries in the U.K., France, Germany and Italy, and Group B representing 22 foundries in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Poland. Both groups showed growth in overall shipments during the first half of 2001 compared to 2000 (figure 1), but Group B registered negative figures in both superalloys and nonferrous alloys. While Group B indicated increases in most end-use markets, reports indicated decreases in high added-value components like aerospace, aeronautics, defense, medical and energy. The following reports from individual countries indicate what investment casters see in the coming year.
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