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Australia is large in terms of geography, but relatively
small in terms of population, with about 19 million inhabitants
as of 2000. Nevertheless, the national auto industry and other
industries serving this well-developed economy consume a respectable
volume of die castings -- between 55,000 and 60,000 metric
tons per year, mostly in aluminum.
As with the country's population, die casting plants are
mostly found along the southeastern coastline, between Sydney
and Melbourne and largely concentrated around those two cities.
Most plants are small, but there are larger plants (a few
dozen machines, or more) at Holdens, Ford and Nissan -- all
captive automotive plants. Among the independents, Townsend
& Parker, near Melbourne, and Unicast,
near Sydney, are of respectable size, with over two dozen
machines, each. There are a couple of multi-plant operations,
including Forgecast
Australia, with two operations, and Caford
Castors, with one plant in Australia and another in
New Zealand.
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