European Foundry Industry Sentiment

May 2026: 

European foundry industry remains under pres­sure in May 2026 while non-fer­rous seg­ment shows con­tin­ued strength

The latest European Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indic­ator (FISI) pub­lished monthly by European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion (EFF) points to a fur­ther weak­en­ing of busi­ness con­fid­ence across much of the European foundry industry in May 2026. While iron and steel foundries repor­ted deteri­or­at­ing busi­ness con­di­tions and lower expect­a­tions for the com­ing months, non-fer­rous foundries con­tin­ued to demon­strate resi­li­ence and con­fid­ence in future mar­ket development.

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The over­all find­ings reflect a chal­len­ging indus­trial envir­on­ment in Europe, char­ac­ter­ized by sub­dued demand, eco­nomic uncer­tainty and con­tin­ued pres­sure on man­u­fac­tur­ing activity.

Iron foundries face declin­ing confidence

In May 2026, European iron foundries repor­ted a decline in both their assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation and their expect­a­tions for the next six months. The cur­rent situ­ation index fell by 2.4 points to 96.3, while the expect­a­tions index declined by 2.7 points to 82.6.The fig­ures indic­ate that many iron foundries con­tinue to face weak order intake and uncer­tain mar­ket pro­spects, par­tic­u­larly in sec­tors linked to tra­di­tional indus­trial pro­duc­tion and con­struc­tion activity.

Steel foundries remain the weak­est segment

European steel foundries repor­ted the low­est sen­ti­ment levels among all foundry sec­tors. The cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation index decreased by 2.0 points to 72.7, reflect­ing per­sist­ently dif­fi­cult oper­at­ing con­di­tions. Expect­a­tions for the next six months also weakened, declin­ing by 1.5 points to 96.6.Despite expect­a­tions remain­ing close to the neut­ral bench­mark, the sec­tor con­tin­ues to struggle with insuf­fi­cient demand and low capa­city utilization.

Non-fer­rous foundries con­tinue to outperform

In con­trast, non-fer­rous foundries main­tained a strong pos­i­tion. Although the assess­ment of the cur­rent busi­ness situ­ation eased slightly by 0.5 points, the index remained at a high level of 132.8. Expect­a­tions for the next six months improved fur­ther, rising by 1.5 points to 147.4.The pos­it­ive out­look reflects sus­tained demand from sec­tors such as elec­tri­fic­a­tion, renew­able energy, light­weight mobil­ity solu­tions and advanced engin­eer­ing applic­a­tions, all of which rely heav­ily on alu­minium and other non-fer­rous castings.

Broader European eco­nomic indic­at­ors remain mixed

The devel­op­ments in the foundry industry cor­res­pond with broader eco­nomic indic­at­ors across Europe.The Euro Area Busi­ness Cli­mate Indic­ator (BCI) remained below its long-term aver­age in May 2026, sig­nalling that con­fid­ence among indus­trial busi­nesses has yet to recover fully. Man­u­fac­tur­ers con­tinue to face geo­pol­it­ical uncer­tain­ties, elev­ated pro­duc­tion costs and cau­tious invest­ment beha­vior through­out the European economy.

At the same time, the Euro­zone Man­u­fac­tur­ing Pur­chas­ing Man­agers’ Index (PMI) registered 51.6 in May, remain­ing above the crit­ical threshold of 50 and indic­at­ing mod­est growth in man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­ity. How­ever, the PMI declined from April levels, sug­gest­ing that the pace of recov­ery is slowing.

While man­u­fac­tur­ing out­put con­tin­ued to expand, busi­nesses repor­ted weaker order growth and ongo­ing employ­ment reduc­tions. The broader Euro­zone Com­pos­ite PMI remained below 50, high­light­ing con­tin­ued eco­nomic weak­ness out­side manufacturing.

Industry Out­look

The May 2026 FISI res­ults reveal a European foundry sec­tor oper­at­ing in a com­plex and uneven mar­ket envir­on­ment. Fer­rous and steel foundries con­tinue to face sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges, while non-fer­rous foundries bene­fit from long-term indus­trial trans­form­a­tion trends asso­ci­ated with the green and digital transitions.

Look­ing ahead, foundry com­pan­ies remain cau­tious. Future devel­op­ments will depend on the strength of indus­trial demand, invest­ment activ­ity, energy mar­ket sta­bil­ity and the over­all eco­nomic recov­ery within Europe.The European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion will con­tinue to mon­itor mar­ket devel­op­ments closely and provide reg­u­lar updates through the Foundry Industry Sen­ti­ment Indicator.

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