There are 1,117 foundries (200 of ferrous metals and about 900 of non ferrous metals) on our national territory and 28,000 employees: a sector that in 2010 produced a total of 1.97 million tons, i.e. +18% over 2009. The higher increase was reported by non ferrous metals foundries with a +30% deriving from a production of over 870,000 tons, while ferrous metals foundries produced more than 1.1 million tons.

“Yet - said Enrico Frigerio, president of Assofond, which met for its annual meeting last Friday May 27th at Fonderia di Torbole (Brescia) - our companies, offering high quality and innovative facilities, close their balance sheets with negative if not very bad results. Quality and innovation, required by the market, don't find resources to sponge on.

The export trend has increased, but larger market shares across the borders mean much reduced margins”. Foundries, as well as the entire manufacturing sector, are slowed down by energy costs that are much higher than the ones paid by foreign competitors. Others come from this sector and have been communicated to the three representatives of the Chamber of Deputies' 10th Commission for the Production Activities present at the meeting: Raffaello Vignali, MP of Popolo della Libertà, Andrea Lulli, MP of Partito Democratico, and Alberto Torazzi, MP of Lega.

These are great expectations for what concerns research and a faster access to financing. Custom duties should decrease on importations of raw materials and should increase on importations of dumped products. In this occasion Assofond also presented the results of a survey carried out in association with the University of Brescia on the industrial injury trend in this sector and on the outcome of initiatives aiming to limit these accidents.
From 2003 to 2007, accidents at work decreased by 40% and 20% in the ferrous and non ferrous metals sectors, respectively, but over the past seven years 4,300 accidents were reported - 4 fatal and 8 causing a permanent disability - for a total lost time of 80.000 working hours.