About Resources Education Directory Meetings Technical Foundation News
Home > News
Casteel Reporter
January 15, 2017
This month’s Casteel Commentary reviews last year’s ideas from January about business in 2016 and proposes new directions for 2017. On the whole, I expect 2017 to turn out better than we have expected in our SFSA forecast. We will see growth as expected but I anticipate we will see double digit improvement from 2016 by the end of 2017…
more >
Market Forecast
October 15, 2016
The 2017 SFSA Market Forecast.pdf
This month’s Casteel Commentary reviews an analysis of the SFSA forecast data and its correlation with macro-economic factors that should be related. The forecast numbers seem reasonable for the total market and for most of the major segments.
August 15, 2016
The steel casting business is a tough business in good times. In trying times like now it can be brutal for us to survive. The Casteel Commentary discusses some of the structural reasons behind our challenges and the volatility of our markets. We have good reason to be optimistic about our future but need to manage our current circumstances to survive…
June 15, 2016
We are surviving in a rapidly changing commercial environment. Venerable foundries are closing. Senior experts are retiring. New employees are difficult to recruit, difficult to retain and difficult to understand. Customers are both less capable and knowledgeable and more demanding. Suppliers to our plants are facing the same severe conditions as we are and yet they are critical to our success. How do we move forward? What are the critical leadership needs of our plants and our industry?
May 15, 2016
For most steel foundries, the majority of their work are proprietary products. The development of the casting in conjunction with the customer has developed a particular production process and tooling that provides the components they require. Because of this we need to recognize that we are proprietary source and mutually dependent. Our customers need us to operate profitably so we can continue to reliably and quickly meet their product requirements…
March 15, 2016
The development of the future workforce is challenging in good conditions and becomes daunting in these poor times. To help, SFSA is hosting training webinars to help members train their employees. These webinars are recorded and available on our website. We also think it will be helpful to recognize Master Craftsmen in our industry. This month’s Casteel Commentary asks each SFSA member to consider nominating one of their highly skilled workers for this honor…
Directory Information Form
January 15, 2016
SFSA Directory Information Form
This month’s Casteel Commentary reviews my forecast of activity for 2015 and makes some guesses on what will happen in 2016…
October 15, 2015
The Casteel Commentary this month is bleak, business stinks! Business is not only poor, the prospect of improvements seem low. A good guess for the timing of improvement would be a year from now. With that in mind, we need to think through how to run our businesses to survive in the downturn while retaining the capacity to grow and prosper when business improves. The Casteel Commentary shares some thoughts on the critical issues in managing a plant in this current market…
more>
