China's casting production since 2000 has surpassed the United States for 6 consecutive years ranked first in the world, of which 2004 is 22.42 million tons, 2005 estimated 26 million tons, casting annual output value of more than 250 billion yuan, precision casting casting production accounted for more than 1/4 of the world's total production, has become the world's foundry manufacturing base. According to the 2004-year production statistics of major casting countries, the top ten castings producing countries can be divided into two categories. One kind is the developing country, although the production is big, but the casting value is low, the small enterprise is large, the staff troop is huge, the ferrous metal ratio is significant.
The other is developed countries, such as Japan, the United States and Europe, they use high-tech main production of higher value-added castings. Developed countries in general, advanced casting technology, product quality, high production efficiency, environmental pollution, the original auxiliary materials have become serialized. Europe has established a multinational service system, production to achieve mechanization, automation, intelligence. Strict implementation of technical standards in the production process, casting scrap rate of about 2%-5%.
Emphasis on the use of information to enhance the casting process design level, the general application of software to mold filling solidification process simulation and process optimization design. From the volume and labor productivity, Europe, the United States and Japan have a great advantage, Japan's labor productivity is per capita annual production of 140 tons of castings, China is estimated to be about 20 tons, 7 times times the difference. The labor cost in China is less than 1 USD/hour, which is dozens of times times different from developed countries, so the export castings have advantages. However, in recent years, the price of materials has soared, which has eliminated the advantages of our export castings in material cost. In terms of product quality and grade, we are far behind the developed countries. In recent years, although the export of castings in China has increased, but exports accounted for only 97% of China's total production, accounting for less than 8% of the world's casting market, the overall growth rate is slow, the performance of poor quality, low prices. For a long time, the export of castings to middle and low products, all kinds of pipe fittings, radiators, kitchenware and Jiajue accounted for 36%.
Some export castings can meet international standards, but to meet the European and American customer standards still have distance. In China, the foundry industry is an important industry, which is the foundation of automobile, Petrochemical, steel, electric power, shipbuilding, textile, equipment manufacturing and other pillar industries, and is an important part of manufacturing industry. In mechanical equipment, castings accounted for a high proportion of the weight of the machine, the internal combustion engine accounted for 80%, tractors accounted for 50%-80%, hydraulic parts, pump machinery accounted for 50%-60%.
The key parts of the automobile are almost all cast; The major equipments such as metallurgy, mine and power station all depend on the large casting and forging, the quality of castings directly affects the quality and performance of the whole machine. China's foundry production enterprises are mainly distributed in the east, the western production is less. At present, the national foundry enterprises about 24,000, employing about more than 1.2 million. Look from the industrial structure, both from the main production plant in the Foundry factory or workshop, there are professional foundry, there are a large number of township foundry.
In terms of size and level, both advanced technology, high degree of mechanization, annual output of tens of thousands of tons of castings of large-scale foundry, such as heavy industry, automotive industry, the aviation industry, some of the advanced foundry; There are also backward technology, equipment, manual operation, annual output of more than hundred tons of small foundry.
