German aluminium foundries have put their most difficult year ever behind them. Production of castings in 2009 was drastically lower than in the previous year. The first quarter of 2010 saw production start to pick up again and was reasonably satisfactory.

Production of non-ferrous (NF) castings in 2009 totalled 700,885 tonnes. The NF foundries thus reported a fall in production of 29.8 per cent compared with 2008 (998,254 tonnes). Compared with 2008, production of aluminium castings was down 31.6 per cent to 549,000 tonnes. This weak development was attributable to the structure of the aluminium founders’ customer base, with the major proportion of production – about 70 per cent – being used in the automotive industry. The more restrained level of orders from carmakers in 2009 had a disproportionately high impact on aluminium founders.

Following the poor performance in 2009, the aluminium foundries were able to record a successful start in 2010 though: in the first two months of the year alone, orders rose by over 40 per cent and year-on-year production was up by over 30 per cent. Stimuli are being provided both by domestic business, which is still restrained, and export markets.