Casting Production in Poland Versus European Trends in 21st Century

Abstract

This article presents changes of the total casting production volumes and of the production of castings made from basic casting alloys in Poland, in Europe and worldwide in years 2001–2021. Analogous casting production parameters were compared for Poland, Europe and countries being the leading European and global manufacturers in years 2001, 2011 and 2021. The leading casting manufacturers in Europe (with the manufacturing volume exceeding 1 million tons in the mentioned years) include Germany, Italy, the Ukraine, France and Spain. For years, the largest casting manufacturer worldwide has been China. In 2001–2021, global casting production increased from ca. 68 million tons to ca. 97 million tons (i.e. by ca. 42%), whereas the European one decreased from ca. 17 million tons to ca. 12 million tons (i.e. by close to 30%). In the analyzed period, the Polish production volume grew from ca. 0.75 million tons to ca. 0.88 million tons (i.e. by ca. 17%). The presented data reveal the decreasing importance of gray cast iron and cast steel and the increasing one of ductile cast iron and aluminum alloys. However, the Polish average annual growth rate for aluminum alloy casting production was 10.3%, whereas the global one was 3% and the European one 0.7%.