At a time when the single most important customer base for castings is the automotive industry, the prosperity, or otherwise, of transportation is clearly of vital importance to the world's casters. This overview looks at possible future expectations and demands made by the land, sea, and air transport industries in terms of quantity, quality, design, and delivery. As would be expected, there has been a steady rise in the demand for passenger cars over many decades. The world figure in 1970 was around 22 million vehicles, this increasing steadily through the 1980s when the figures rose from around 28 million to 37 million. The end of the 1990s saw the annual demand at 39.375 million, although a slight decrease was experienced in 2001 at 39.271 million (-0.3 percent). Projected figures indicate little change in 2002, +2.3 percent (39.3 million) in 2003, and +4.0 percent (41.8 million) in 2004.
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