Publish Date: October 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The Ferrous Metal Foundries Market Report covers the $20.5 billion industry which produces iron and steel castings for diverse applications spanning transportation, machinery, infrastructure, and industrial equipment. Competitive structure features both high-volume automotive and machinery suppliers alongside specialized foundries addressing performance-critical components. Market requirements increasingly emphasize dimensional precision, mechanical properties, internal integrity, and increasingly complex geometries supporting lightweighting initiatives. Manufacturers face challenges balancing melting efficiency, molding technology requirements, metallurgical control, and tariff implications affecting both metal inputs and international market access. Successful companies establish advantages through advanced melting and molding technologies enhancing quality and efficiency, specialized metallurgical expertise optimizing properties, comprehensive testing ensuring internal integrity, and increasingly digital design integration streamlining product development in a sector where both technical capabilities and quality consistency determine competitive positioning across diverse ferrous casting applications.
Ferrous Metal Foundries Industry Definition
Ferrous Metal Foundries produce iron and steel castings for machinery, equipment, transportation, and infrastructure components. Companies melt iron and steel alloys, pour them into prepared molds, and perform cleaning and finishing operations to create shaped components with specified mechanical properties. These businesses serve equipment manufacturers and industrial markets with metal components offering excellent strength, wear resistance, and vibration damping. The industry combines metallurgical expertise with mold-making capabilities to efficiently create complex metal components with consistent properties, focusing on innovations in automated molding, robotics, simulation software, and environmental controls that enhance quality and efficiency.
NAICS Code: 33151
Number of Companies: 555
Number of Plants / Facilities: 629
Industry Employees: 59,123
Market Size: $20.5 billion
TARIFF IMPACT (Summer 2025 – Download Report for Updated Analysis)
This report has in-depth analysis on the recent US tariff changes on material costs, quantifying import dependencies, tariff exposure rates, and key source countries for the ferrous metal foundries sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $460 million
Relative Tariff Impact: MODERATE
Ferrous Metal Foundries Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Ferrous Metal Foundries Market Report is 63 pages of deep insights into the trends, dynamics, and forecasts shaping the industry. This market report is utilized by professionals to gain a in-depth understanding of the sector for business strategy, planning, forecasting, benchmarking, industry analysis, valuations, identifying organizational inefficiencies, financial analysis, and more.
The report has over 100 industry statistical data sets with historicals (2017-2025), trend analysis, and forecasts for 2026 and the next 5 years. The report includes sales & expense trends, detailed breakdown on 26 expenses, extensive financial analysis, forecasts on 100+ data sets, inventory trends & analysis, 31 balance sheet benchmarks, segmentation by business size and structure, industry concentration analysis, material costs analysis, profitability metrics, state metrics analysis, plant capacity analysis, workforce composition, inflation trend benchmarks, wage analysis, revenue per employee trends, and more.
Below are a few page images from the report and check out the table of contents for a complete overview.
Report Table of Contents
Evaluate the table of contents to appreciate why thousands of professionals, bankers, consultants, accountants, and other executives rely on Kentley Insights for data-rich industry insights.
For this report, the core data is sourced from comprehensive business, operational, and economic surveys conducted by government and private institutions and filled out by a statistically significant number of companies in the ferrous metal foundries industry. Our forecasts take into account historical trends, industry dynamics, and our macroeconomic projections.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources, Industry Definition & Market Commentary
4 – Market Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Market Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH ANALYSIS
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies & Facilities
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
– Percentage of Revenue from Product Lines
10 – BCG Matrix – Net Income vs. Revenue Growth
– Subsectors vs. Industry
11 – Total Sales by Month & Year
– 2021-2025 Sales per Month
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year
– Inventory Value per Month for 2021-2025
13 – Months of Inventory
– Months of Inventory per Month for 2021-2025
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Concentration Segments by Top Companies
– Business Size Segments
– Business Structure Segments
15 – Market Size by State
16 – Market Size as a % of State GDP
17 – Sales as a % of State Manufacturing
18 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
19 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
– Business Size Segments – 1-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-250, & 250+ employees
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
20 – Segmentation by Concentration (Top 50 Companies)
– Concentration Segments – Top 4, 5-8, 9-20, & 21-50 companies
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
21 – Market Share of Top 50 Companies
22 – Subsector Market Share of Top 50 Companies
23 – Segmentation by Business Structure
– Business Structure Segments – C-Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships, & Sole Proprietorships
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
24 – Revenue per Company by State
– Revenue per Company
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
28 – Subsector Growth
– Sales and 5-Year Growth
29 – Subsector Statistics
– Sales per Company & Facility, and 5-Year Growth
30 – Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Companies & Locations
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Employee Statistics
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
– 5-Year Growth
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities per Company
– Employees per Company
– 5-Year Growth
SECTION TWO
COST, CAPITAL & PROFIT BENCHMARKS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
– Percent of Companies that are Profitable
– Average Net Income as a Percent of Revenue
– 10 of the Top Financial Ratios
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– Current & Non-Current Assets: 14 Categories
– Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth: 13 Categories
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX
– Revenue vs. OPEX Growth
– OPEX as a Percent of Revenue
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Facility
– Revenue vs. Expenses Growth per Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– Employee Expenses: payroll, insurance, pension, defined contribution plans, fringe benefits, temps
– Cost of Materials: materials, parts, containers, packaging, cost of resale, electricity and fuels, contract work
– Buildings and Equipment: capex for equipment, rental or lease for equipment, capex for buildings and structures, rental or leases, repair and maintenance
– Other Operating Expenses: professional and technical services, IT software and hardware, data processing and communications, advertising, refuse removal, taxes and license fees, other
-Inventory Breakdown: finished goods, work-in-progress, materials and supplies
40 – Production Material Costs & Tariff Analysis
– Top Production Material Costs Breakdown
– Industry & Material Tariff Analysis – % of costs, import %, tariff costs, source countries
41 – Producer Pricing Index
– Annual PPI – Indexed to 2006
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
– Monthly PPI Figures for the Past 4 Years
42 – Plant Utilization & Hours
– Plant Utilization Rate
– Plant Operational Hours per Week
– 2022-2025 Historical Figures by Quarter
43 – Reasons for Non-Full Production
– 7 Categories Quarterly Survey Results for Past 2 Years
44 – Productivity & Employment
– Revenue per Employee
– Total Employees
– Employees per Company
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
– Absolute & 5-Year Growth
48 – Payroll Analysis
– Payroll per Employee, Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
49 – Payroll per Company by Segments
50 – Payroll per Plant by Segments
51 – Payroll per Employee by Segments
52 – Payroll per Employee by State
53 – Organizational Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
– Management & Finance
– Sales & Marketing
– Technology, Engineering, Science
– Service, Support & Training
– Operations
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Management & Finance
– Sales, Service & Marketing
– Operations
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
57 – Employees per Company by Segments
58 – Employees per Plant by Segments
59 – Facilities per Company by Segments
60 – Total Employment by State
61 – Population to Every Employee by State
62 – Employees per Facility by State
63 – Overview of Kentley Insights
Download a Sample Report
Below is a free sample report download. The 2026 Ferrous Metal Foundries Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Iron foundries
Steel foundries (except investment)
Steel investment foundries
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Iron and steel scrap (excluding home scrap)
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Misc. iron, steel, and ferroalloy ingot, shapes, and forms (excluding castings, forgings, bars, structural, wire, sheet, strip)
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Nonferrous metal shapes, forms, sheet, strip, powder, and wire (excluding castings / forgings), excluding aluminum and copper
Nonmetallic minerals, including stone, sand, refractory minerals, and chemical materials, excluding fertilizer materials
Grinding wheels and other abrasive products (excluding industrial diamonds)
Misc. fabricated metal products (excluding hardware, containers, screw machine, bearing components, castings, forgings, and wire)
All basic organic and inorganic chemicals, excluding petrochemicals
Nonclay refractories
Clay refractories
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Molders and Molding Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Machine Tool Cutting Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Metal Furnace Operators, Tenders, Pourers, and Casters
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Machinists
Computer Control Programmers and Operators
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Industrial Engineers, Including Health and Safety
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Tool and Die Makers
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Workers
Crushing, Grinding, Polishing, Mixing, and Blending Workers
Miscellaneous Metal Workers and Plastic Workers
Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks
General and Operations Managers
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