Castings are produced in foundries all over the globe. Conditions vary country to country, and even foundry to foundry, but the industry as a whole experiences trends. The foundry industry is undergoing some important shifts that effect quality and cost for the end user. Foundry technologies have advanced over the years, and basic foundry operations have also evolved and diversified. The most dominant trends overall are scale, automation, and on-site finishing.
New furnaces are larger, safer, and more efficient than previous generations. This has allowed industry output to grow despite a continually shrinking number of North American foundries; despite having fewer foundries than India and Japan (see table), the United States has the second largest global output of cast metal at 12,250,000 metric tons. China far outstrips all competition with an annual production of over 44,500,000 metric tons.
