The casting market is dominated by the domestic market. The export of castings is less than 10% of the total output, and mainly medium and low-grade castings. The average price is only half of the average price of foreign castings. In the middle and late 1990s, with the entry of foreign capital into China’s casting industry, driven by these joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises, China’s casting export situation is optimistic, the grade of export castings is improved, and shows great growth potential.
From the composition of export castings, non industrial gray cast iron products with low technical content and low price, such as municipal supplies, still account for the largest share. Taking 2002 as an example, this kind of iron castings accounted for 39% of the total export in that year. This marketing pattern not only makes China’s casting industry unprofitable, but also frequently receives anti-dumping complaints from casting importing countries.
The export situation of castings is good, but the product price is low and the profit level is low. There are product grade and other problems, but the key lies in the quality of castings. From the current situation, except for a few factories, the quality of castings being exported has more or less problems, and there is a large gap even compared with other developing countries. Most of the imported castings in China are difficult high-grade castings, such as cylinder block and cylinder head of high-grade cars, high alloy steel castings with special requirements, light alloy die castings, etc. From the import and export trade, we can see that there are huge differences between the two prices.