European Foundry Industry Sentiment

April 2026: 

European Foundry Industry faces fra­gile recov­ery as April 2026 FISI sig­nals per­sist­ent uncertainty

The European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Index (FISI), pub­lished monthly by European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion (EFF), con­tin­ues to oper­ate in a chal­len­ging eco­nomic envir­on­ment marked by uneven demand, weak indus­trial momentum, and grow­ing uncer­tainty about future mar­ket con­di­tions. Accord­ing to the latest data the sec­tor shows signs of sta­bil­iz­a­tion in some seg­ments, while con­fid­ence regard­ing the next six months remains fragile.

The over­all FISI indic­ator for April 2026 remained below the long-term bench­mark, con­firm­ing that Europe’s foundry sec­tor is still strug­gling to regain sus­tained growth momentum des­pite isol­ated improve­ments in sev­eral cast­ing segments.

European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion, rep­res­ent­ing national foundry asso­ci­ations across Europe, notes that foundries con­tinue to face sig­ni­fic­ant pres­sures from high energy costs, geo­pol­it­ical instabil­ity, weak indus­trial out­put in key European mar­kets, and ongo­ing uncer­tainty in auto­mot­ive and man­u­fac­tur­ing sup­ply chains.

Fer­rous Cast­ings: Stable cur­rent con­di­tions but weaker outlook

In the fer­rous cast­ings seg­ment, the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation remained unchanged in April 2026 at 98.7 index points. How­ever, expect­a­tions for the next six months declined fur­ther to 85.3 points, high­light­ing increas­ing cau­tion among iron foundries across Europe. The data sug­gests that while oper­a­tional activ­ity has sta­bil­ized in the short term, com­pan­ies remain con­cerned about future orders, invest­ment activ­ity, and broader indus­trial demand across the European man­u­fac­tur­ing sector.

Steel foundries show slight improvement

The steel cast­ings sec­tor recor­ded a mod­est improve­ment in cur­rent busi­ness con­di­tions. The cur­rent situ­ation index increased by 0.8 points to 74.7 index points in April 2026. Expect­a­tions for the next six months remained stable at 98.1 points. Des­pite the slight improve­ment, the steel cast­ing seg­ment con­tin­ues to oper­ate well below his­tor­ical aver­ages, reflect­ing sub­dued demand from heavy industry, machinery, and infra­struc­ture-related sectors.

Non-Fer­rous foundries remain the strongest segment

Non-fer­rous foundries con­tinue to out­per­form other parts of the European foundry industry. In April 2026, the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation increased by 1.8 points to 133.3 index points. At the same time, expect­a­tions for the next six months declined by 1.5 points to 145.9 points, indic­at­ing that although mar­ket activ­ity remains rel­at­ively strong, com­pan­ies are becom­ing more cau­tious regard­ing the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of demand growth in the com­ing months.

The non-fer­rous seg­ment con­tin­ues to bene­fit from demand linked to light­weight com­pon­ents, elec­tri­fic­a­tion, renew­able energy sys­tems, and advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing applications.

European Industry still under pressure

The broader Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI) for the euro area remains in neg­at­ive ter­rit­ory, reflect­ing con­tinu­ing weak­ness in European man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­ity. At the same time, the Euro­zone Man­u­fac­tur­ing PMI reached 52.2, sig­nal­ing a slight expan­sion in man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­ity. The latest FISI res­ults under­line the close rela­tion­ship between the foundry sec­tor and the wider indus­trial eco­nomy in Europe.

European foundries remain stra­tegic­ally import­ant sup­pli­ers for indus­tries includ­ing auto­mot­ive, machinery, energy, rail­ways, aerospace, defence, and infra­struc­ture. How­ever, the sec­tor con­tin­ues to call for stronger European indus­trial policies sup­port­ing com­pet­it­ive­ness, invest­ment, energy afford­ab­il­ity, and indus­trial resilience.

EFF emphas­ises that main­tain­ing a com­pet­it­ive European foundry industry is essen­tial for safe­guard­ing indus­trial sov­er­eignty and secur­ing resi­li­ent European sup­ply chains dur­ing a period of global eco­nomic transformation.

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