An updated portrait of the international spring industry
Stuck between innovation and turndown: this is in short the portrait of the European and international spring industry as it resulted from the 10th International Congress organized by the European Spring Federation.
The event was held in Hamburg from 26 to 28 September 2019, gathering together under one roof about 160 professionals from the whole world.
Tomi Parmasuo, President of ESF, welcomed the participants and introduced the speakers who took stock of the economic situation of the spring industry in different parts of the world.
Almost all participants mentioned the critical situation of the automotive industry, probably the main outlet market for springs. Germany presented the most cloudy outlook and forecasts. “The future expectations in business,” said Paul-Bernd Vogtland, Chairman of the Managing Board of VDFI (Association of the German spring industry), “are similar to the beginning of the crisis in 2008/2009, though the origins of the turndown are different. The weak demand in the automotive industry will last approximately three years!” The trade barriers hit Germany hard, as it's mainly an export nation. Now the main hope and challenge is to rapidly adjust costs (electricity, wages, materials) to the declining business rhythm.
The speech presented by FIM Ressorts, the national French association, gave a slightly more positive outlook for France: the consolidated spring industry turnover has always increased since 2011, showing excellent performances in comparison to the whole French industry and French automotive industry. Despite the impact of uncertainties around Brexit, international trade tensions, and the challenges with the automotive industry and engine electrification, the resilience of the French industry has always been impressive over the past, so it is reasonable to expect French springmakers to adapt soon to the new business conditions.
Francesco Silvestri, President of Anccem, the Italian Spring Manufacturers Association, complained first about the political insecurity in his country leaving industries in an unstable environment. The first part of 2019 was characterized by a significant decrease, particularly for those linked to the automotive sector. Even if official data provided by Federmeccanica showed a stable export for mechanical and engineering industries in the first quarter of the year, a slowdown is expected in the second part of the year, as Germany, the automotive sector and its applications still remain reference markets for Italian springmakers.
This is just to speak about the top 3 springmaking countries in Europe which are, according to data provided by ESF: Germany (385,000 tons in 2018), Italy (173,000 tons) and France (almost 64,000t).
The outlook for the spring industry in the USA is mixed. Many government policies are favorable to business – like the recent decrease in interest rates, the reduced regulations and taxation changes – but some are unfavorable: a stronger US dollar, tariffs and trade wars drop a shadow on US manufacturers. US spring producers experienced a modest to flat growth in the first half of 2019.
Even the Chinese spring sector – a branch involving 10,000 industries with 40% of them employing between 100 and 500 workers – is subject to the ups and downs of the world market. The overall growth rate is slowing down, as the 3 main market outlets for springs in China are automotive, motorbikes and maintenance market.
Some voices stand out from the crowd: Poland is undergoing an uninterrupted pace of growth despite the global slowdown momentum, mainly thanks to a large domestic consumer market. South Korea is facing an increase in sales due to a strong automobile industry benefitting from an expansion in subsidies for electric vehicles and the launch of hybrid cars with high fuel efficiency.
Other interesting topics for discussion at the conference were Industry 4.0 applications to the wire and spring industry, metal additive manufacturing applied to springmaking, and the future of e-mobility.
The 11th International Congress will be held in Barcelona (Spain) in 2021.
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