The iron, steel, and malleable foundries of Germany 2009

• are mostly small or medium-sized enterprises.
• 81 % employ a workforce of 200 or less, while 6 % employ 500 or more people.
• The production of castings is concentrated in
  • North-Rhine Westphalia (25 %)
  • Hessen (18 %)
  • Baden-Württemberg (17 %)
• 46.000 people were employed in 268 foundries
• producing 3.2 million tons of castings (value 5.6 Bill. Euro)
• Following after the US, the People's Republic of China, the CIS, Japan and India, Germany ranks 6th among the world's producers of castings, and is first in Europe.
• 3.3 million tons of castings were sold to the following customer industries:
  • Motor vehicles
  • Mechanical engineering
  • Piping
  • Others
• 34 % of the total was sold to customers abroad, proof positive of the production and development competence of the foundries of Germany on the international market.