Glocal forging market

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Glocal forging market

Glocal forging market

Technical Articles
Apr 01,18

Forging is a manufacturing process wherein a metal is processed through pressing, pounding, and squeezing under high pressure, thereby transforming the metal into the particular size and shape required by customers.

IPF traverses through the forging market space on a global and local scale

Global forging hold

The global forging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.35% during the period 2017-2021. Forging as compared to the casting ensures greater efficiency, reliability, and precision. Custom forging accounts for the largest segment. Some of the major end-users of the forging industry include automotive, aerospace and defense, agriculture, construction, mining, general industrial equipment, and material handling equipment, etc.

The automotive sector serves as the major end-user for the forging market. Characteristics associated with forged parts such as reliability, strength, and economic viability have increased the importance of the use of forged parts in this sector. But with the automotive industry reaching a mature stage in the forging market, it is expected that other non-automotive sectors will mostly contribute to the growth of the global forging market until 2020.

The impression die segment known as closed die forging,is the most dominant type of technology being used in the market. Due to its extreme dimensional accuracy and fine surface finish, it is widely used in commercial forging processes. Automotive and aerospace, especially the commercial aviation segment, are the two biggest end-users of impression die forging methodology.

With automotive industry being the largest revenue contributor of the global forging market, its growth plays a crucial role in boosting demand for forged products. The automotive sector is the leading end-user segment for this market, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 7% during the forecast period. Parameters such as reliability, strength, and economic viability have increased the importance of forged parts in this sector.

61% of the total revenue is generated from the APAC accounts making it the largest contributor to the forging industry. It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 9% during the forecast period. Increasing outsourcing of forging activities to low-cost countries in the region is expected to drive this regional market. Demand for infrastructural development in developing countries and the emergence of India as the manufacturing hub for the automotive industry will propel the growth of the market in this region.

The global forging market is highly scattered because of the presence of numerous small and large vendors. The providers in this market compete on the basis of price, quality, innovation, service, reputation, distribution, and promotion. Recent trends suggest that major vendors are investing in R&D to explore avenues in the non-automotive sector to increase the market revenue.

Local forging know-how

Lifeline to the manufacturing industry, forging supports sectors such as, automobile, industrial machinery, power, construction and mining equipment, railways and general engineering. Indian forging industry can forge variety of raw materials like carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, super alloy, titanium, aluminium, etc. with an installed capacity of around

38.5 lakh MT. The current investment in the plant and machinery by Indian forging companies is worth of Rs 278.33 billion.

Considering the installed capacity it is seen that about 83% of the total number of units are small and very small, while only about 8% can be classified as very large and large units. The balance of about 9% constitutes to the medium sized units. The major forging clusters are found to be in the states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Current share of auto sector is about 58% of total forging production while the rest is with the non-auto sector. The Indian forgings industry has made rapid strides and currently, not only meets almost all the domestic demand, but has also emerged as a large exporter of forgings.

Courtesy: Technavio and Association of Indian Forging Industry