European Foundry Industry Sentiment

Feb­ru­ary 2026: 

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index (FISI) indic­ates a cau­tiously sta­bil­iz­ing out­look in Feb­ru­ary 2026

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index (FISI), pub­lished monthly by European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion, in Feb­ru­ary 2026 kept the same level as in pre­vi­ous  month – reach­ing a value of  95.5 points.

The latest data from the European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion (EFF), indic­ate a cau­tiously sta­bil­iz­ing yet still fra­gile out­look for the European foundry industry in Feb­ru­ary 2026. Accord­ing to the European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index (FISI), the sec­tor presents a mixed pic­ture, with mod­est improve­ments in cur­rent con­di­tions con­tras­ted by weak­en­ing expect­a­tions in sev­eral segments.

The over­all assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation in European iron foundries improved slightly in Feb­ru­ary, rising by 0.7 points to 96.9. How­ever, expect­a­tions for the next six months edged down by 0.1 points to 89.1, sig­nal­ing con­tin­ued uncer­tainty about near-term prospects.

In the steel cast­ing seg­ment, sen­ti­ment showed more pos­it­ive momentum. The cur­rent situ­ation index increased sig­ni­fic­antly by 1.6 points to 76.1, while expect­a­tions rose by 1.1 points to 100.2, indic­at­ing cau­tious optim­ism for recov­ery in this segment.

Non-fer­rous foundries con­tinue to out­per­form other seg­ments in terms of cur­rent activ­ity levels. The cur­rent situ­ation index rose by 0.4 points to a strong 130.9. How­ever, expect­a­tions declined not­ably by 2.2 points to 144.9, sug­gest­ing that even this rel­at­ively robust seg­ment anti­cip­ates head­winds in the com­ing months.

Over­all, the FISI remains below its long-term bench­mark, reflect­ing a sec­tor still nav­ig­at­ing struc­tural and cyc­lical chal­lenges. While short-term improve­ments in cur­rent busi­ness con­di­tions are evid­ent, par­tic­u­larly in steel and non-fer­rous cast­ings, weak­en­ing expect­a­tions high­light per­sist­ent con­cerns related to demand volat­il­ity, energy costs, and broader eco­nomic uncer­tainty in Europe.

The diver­gence between improv­ing present con­di­tions and soften­ing future expect­a­tions under­scores the del­ic­ate bal­ance facing the European foundry industry. Com­pan­ies con­tinue to oper­ate in a com­plex envir­on­ment shaped by geo­pol­it­ical ten­sions, fluc­tu­at­ing indus­trial demand, and the ongo­ing trans­ition toward greener pro­duc­tion technologies.

EFF emphas­izes that main­tain­ing com­pet­it­ive­ness will require con­tin­ued invest­ment in innov­a­tion, energy effi­ciency, and work­force skills. At the same time, sup­port­ive policy frame­works at the European level remain essen­tial to ensure the long-term resi­li­ence of this stra­tegic­ally import­ant industry.

The Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI), pub­lished by the European Com­mis­sion, reached ‑0.36 in Feb­ru­ary 2026, com­pared to the pre­vi­ous read­ing of ‑0.38 in Janu­ary 2026. The Euro­zone Man­u­fac­tur­ing PMI in Feb­ru­ary 2026 reached a level of 50.8 which was an increase by 0.7 point from the value of 49.5 in Janu­ary 2026.

The FISI – European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator – is the earli­est avail­able com­pos­ite indic­ator provid­ing inform­a­tion on the European foundry industry per­form­ance. It is pub­lished by EFF —  European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion every month and is based on sur­vey responses of the European foundry industry. The EFF mem­bers are asked to give their assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation in the foundry sec­tor and their expect­a­tions for the next six months.

The BCI – Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator – is an indic­ator pub­lished by the European Com­mis­sion. The BCI eval­u­ates devel­op­ment con­di­tions of the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor in the euro area every month and uses five bal­ances of opin­ion from industry sur­vey: pro­duc­tion trends, order books, export order books, stocks and pro­duc­tion expectations.

Pur­chas­ing Man­agers’ Index (PMI) -  in the Euro area is an indic­ator of the eco­nomic health of the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor. It is based on such indic­at­ors as: new orders, invent­ory levels, pro­duc­tion, sup­plier deliv­er­ies and the employ­ment environment.

EFF Con­tact:

Wit­old Dobosz
Gen­eral Sec­ret­ariat
mail: info@eff-eu.org