Although the development of China’s foundry industry has made great progress in recent years, the whole industry is still in an extensive development state. There is still a large gap with the international advanced level and social expectations in terms of industrial structure, quality and efficiency, independent innovation ability, process equipment and energy and resource utilization efficiency. The task of green intelligent transformation and upgrading is urgent and arduous.
China’s casting output has been increasing since it surpassed the United States to become the first in the world in 2000; Since 2011, it has changed from “high-speed growth” to “medium and low-speed growth”. In recent years, China’s large-scale casting enterprises have generally invested in casting equipment, and advanced equipment such as 3D printer, automatic molding line, automatic pouring machine, industrial robot and large die-casting machine have been successively put into casting application. From 2011 to 2019, more than 5100 new modeling lines have been added in China, and the overall equipment level of a few enterprises has been equivalent to the advanced level of industrial developed countries. In addition, the gradient transfer of China’s foundry industry to the central and western regions is accelerating, and the construction of foundry industry clusters (parks) and bases has developed rapidly.
(1) China is a big country in casting production, but it is not a strong country in casting production.
(2) China’s foundry industry will maintain rapid development in the next decade.
(3) The future development trend of casting technology in China will focus on large-scale, lightweight and accurate casting production, as well as digital casting and clean casting.
Generally speaking, the development status of China’s casting industry shows the following characteristics: casting output continues to grow and the growth rate slows down; Casting demand structure changes obviously; Further optimization of casting material structure; Casting quality has been steadily improved; The equipment technology level of foundry enterprises has been greatly improved; The degree of specialization in the production of raw and auxiliary materials for casting has been greatly improved; The manufacturing level of domestic casting equipment and molds has been significantly improved; The industrial layout is more reasonable.
The development trends of China’s foundry industry are as follows: medium and low-speed growth will become the new normal of the development of foundry industry during the 14th Five Year Plan period; Under the new normal, the foundry industry will face new development opportunities; The structure adjustment of foundry industry will be accelerated and the industrial layout will be further optimized; The integration of industrialization and industrialization and innovation drive will become a new engine for the development of foundry industry; Environmental protection and occupational health and safety will be significantly improved; A talent training model at all levels to meet the needs of development will be gradually established.