We are seeing some real trouble out there in the steel castings world folks.  Despite news that all sectors of the US economy are holding their own, the industrial world, steel foundries in particular, are doing their best to tread water while oil and most other commodities find an equilibrium, but it’s painful.

There are several steel foundries near us here in Ohio that are either on prolonged shutdowns or have gone out of business.  We can at least say that we are holding our own right now.

And it doesn’t sound much better for most of our high-alloy peers — foundries like us that produce monel, inconel, stainless steel, high nickel castings, and other specialty ferrous materials are similarly struggling.  The automotive foundries seem to be OK and the big locomotive houses are doing well, but that’s about it.  We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop in the steel casting world.

Goldman Sachs does forecast that oil will average closer to $60/barrel in 2016 as capacity comes offline.  We shall see.

For now, it’s a weird time in our industry.