The fourth largest sector in the country, the Indian Automotive Industry is on the upswing and all big producers are relocating their manufacturing in this region to be near the upcoming biggest consumer markets. Currently, India is the world’s third-largest Casting producer. This will further open more opportunities for castings and forging industries both for domestic production and for exports.

The manufacturing processes of Casting and Forging are known to give intricate shape to industrial components. The major difference between the both is that Forging is extensively obtained with the usage of iron and steel metal. No industrial product can be considered complete without the processes of Casting and Forging. Both the processes have been in existence since the beginning of the industrial revolution. However, Forgings are preferred over Casting because of better directional strength, high impact toughness, fatigue properties, and structural integrity.

Casting and forging are one of the key engineering segments supplying various components to end-user industries such as Railways, Automobile, Defense, Aerospace, Material handling, Construction equipment, and Mines. The Indian casting and forging sector has equipped itself to retain its prowess to accelerate revenue from the auto sector. Heavy expansion by way of organic and inorganic growth has been playing an important role in this industry. Forging players are taking initiative to acquire technology, knowledge, experience, and expertise in the industry. The Indian Casting and Forging industry has gone through up-gradation to be in sync with the international practices. Given the enormous potential, frontline domestic players have started building up world-scale capabilities by either putting up Greenfield projects or acquiring sick global facilities and turning them around as business solutions for setting up a foreign business in India.

The Indian automobile sector is currently moving towards the growth lane in the new fiscal year with robust sales growth across all vehicle categories. The Association of Indian Forging Industry (AIFI) stated that in comparison to the usual trend of low production during the months of April-May in a fiscal year, the year 2018-19 let the industry witness a continuous higher demand during the first quarter.

The ‘Make in India’ program aims to raise the contribution of the manufacturing sector to 25% of the Gross Domestic Product by 2025. The Indian Automotive industry commands 22% of India manufacturing GDP and 7% of India’s overall GDP. The Chinese influence in the India automotive industry is only to going to decrease in the future as the world’s biggest car market, standing at about 28 million a year finally begins to report slowing growth. Zion, the Market Research Company published a report highlighting that the global steel forging market for automotive applications was valued at $41.77 Billion in the year 2016 and is expected to reach $56 Billion by the year 2022, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.1% between the years 2017 and 2022.

The Automotive industry depends significantly on steel-forged metal components. Forged steel is used for demanding applications such as crankshafts, transmission gears, and bearings, and is essential in handling the torque and stress placed on these components. Intense competition among the key players is majorly driving the demand for more attractive and lightweight vehicles in the country. Tecnova, the India management consultant presumes that in almost no time, the Indian Casting and Forging industry is going to lie at par with China. The industry is looking at double growth rates spurred by imminent demand from emerging sectors, resulting in an increase in the set-up of foreign business in India.

Reference Links-

https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/casting-a-hopeful-eye-to-the-future/article17452574.ece
http://www.capitalmarketplus.com/cabnas/Cabstory.asp?SNo=130892&opt
http://www.autocarpro.in/news-national/association-of-indian-forging-industry-foresees-healthy-growth-for-the-forging-industry-40668
http://industrialproductspurchase.com/admin/articles_pdf/1320406704-Casting%20and%20Forging.pdf
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/forging-market-for-automotive-application-to-be-valued-at-56-billion-by-2022-2017-03-10/rep_id:4136