European Foundry Industry Sentiment

March 2026: 

European Foundry Industry shows mixed sig­nals in March 2026 amid mod­er­at­ing outlook.

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index (FISI), pub­lished monthly by European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion, while main­tain­ing the same value as a month before – a level of 95.5 points, presen­ted a mixed per­form­ance in March 2026, reflect­ing cau­tious sta­bil­iz­a­tion in cur­rent con­di­tions but weak­en­ing expect­a­tions for the months ahead, accord­ing to the latest data from the European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion (EFF).

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) for fer­rous cast­ings shows that the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation improved mod­estly, increas­ing by 1.8 points to reach 98.7 index points. This indic­ates a slight recov­ery in oper­a­tional con­di­tions across iron foundries. How­ever, industry expect­a­tions for the next six months declined sig­ni­fic­antly by 3.0 points to 86.1 index points, high­light­ing grow­ing uncer­tainty among mar­ket participants.

A more chal­len­ging situ­ation is vis­ible in the steel cast­ings seg­ment. In March 2026, the cur­rent busi­ness assess­ment decreased by 2.2 points to 73.9 index points, sig­nal­ing con­tin­ued weak­ness in this seg­ment. Expect­a­tions for the next six months also fell by 2.1 points to 98.1 index points, sug­gest­ing lim­ited optim­ism for short-term recovery.

In con­trast, the non-fer­rous cast­ings seg­ment remains a bright spot within the industry. The cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation improved slightly by 0.6 points to 131.5 index points, while expect­a­tions for the next six months increased by 2.5 points to 147.4 index points. This indic­ates sus­tained strong demand and a more pos­it­ive out­look com­pared to fer­rous segments.

The broader eco­nomic envir­on­ment provides a cau­tiously sup­port­ive back­drop. The Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI) for the euro area remained in slightly neg­at­ive ter­rit­ory in March 2026 (-0,27), reflect­ing ongo­ing fra­gil­ity in the over­all indus­trial con­fid­ence des­pite some sta­bil­iz­a­tion trends. At the same time, the Euro­zone Man­u­fac­tur­ing PMI reached 51.9, sig­nal­ing a mod­er­ate expan­sion in man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­ity. While this sug­gests improv­ing indus­trial momentum, it has not yet trans­lated into uni­formly pos­it­ive sen­ti­ment across all foundry segments.

Look­ing ahead, the European foundry industry is expec­ted to nav­ig­ate a period of uneven recov­ery. While cur­rent con­di­tions in some seg­ments show resi­li­ence, declin­ing expectations—particularly in fer­rous and steel castings—point to ongo­ing con­cerns related to demand volat­il­ity, cost pres­sures, and geo­pol­it­ical uncertainties.

Non-fer­rous foundries are likely to con­tinue out­per­form­ing, sup­por­ted by struc­tural demand in sec­tors such as auto­mot­ive elec­tri­fic­a­tion and light­weight mater­i­als. How­ever, the over­all industry out­look remains cau­tious, with com­pan­ies closely mon­it­or­ing order intake and mac­roe­co­nomic developments.

The com­ing months will be crit­ical in determ­in­ing whether the mod­est improve­ments in cur­rent activ­ity can trans­late into sus­tained growth, or whether weak­en­ing expect­a­tions will lead to a broader slow­down across the European foundry sector.

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