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Watch
To understand the foundry industry in Switzerland,
one need only know the country's largest export.
Precision Machinery
-- If you guessed "watches," you're on the right track. Machinery
-- including many types of high precision machinery -- typically
accounts for more than 25% of Swiss exports, and the country's
single biggest industry is engineering. When electrical and
electronic-engineering, precision instruments, and metals
are added in, the total represents over 40% of exports. Worldwide,
Switzerland is one of the ten biggest machinery exporting
countries.
This is reflected directly in the country's
casting industry. "Apart from significant exports to nearby
countries, Swiss foundries supply the local textile, machine
industries, as well as the housing and building industry,"
according to Jurg Gerster, Managing Director, Swiss Foundry
Association (Giesserei-Verband der Schweiz - GVS). "Swiss
castings are highly appreciated because of their quality,
reliability, and delivery just in time," he hastens to add.
No Automotive
-- And, in distinct contrast to just about every other developed
economy, Switzerland doesn't have an automotive industry.
Considering that, in many countries, automotive castings account
for 25-35% of total castings output, this puts Switzerland
in a somewhat unique position. How does this impact the profile
of the industry in Switzerland?
As you might expect, output of castings per
capita is lower than in auto-producing neighbors. Switzerland
produces about 20,000 tons/million population annually, vs.
about twice that for Italy and France, and 2.5 times that
number in Germany. (U.S. production is at roughly the German
rate.)
Little Steel
-- Switzerland's output is divided between iron and non-ferrous;
there are just two steel foundries in the country. Other than
the near-absence of steel, the output profile is fairly average,
with 82% of the tonnage going for iron, and most of the non-ferrous
tonnage in aluminum. "Most of the 67 foundries are located
in the highlands, that is, between the lakes of Geneva and
Constance," says Jurg Gerster. (You can access 64 of those
foundries on the www.castingtrade.com
database.) "Some of them -- though equipped with the most
modern installations -- are 100 or more years old, due to
the machine and motor industries that were booming in those
times." Today, the industry employs about 4,500 people. Annual
output is 145,000 tons.
Scales to Turbines
-- The major machinery end-uses include scales, printing
machinery, textile machinery, precision tools, compressors,
vacuum pumps, food and packaging machinery, foundry machines,
turbines and machine tools.
Jurg Gerster says most R&D in the Swiss
casting industry is undertaken primarily by the companies
themselves, partly in conjunction with the laboratories of
the Federal Technical Universities of Zurich and Lausanne.
He adds that, in many activities, the foundries as well as
the Association cooperate very closely with neighboring countries,
particularly Germany.
GVS and Zurich --
The GVS was formed from the merger in 1994 between the former
Association of Swiss Ironfoundries (founded in 1906) and the
Swiss Metal Foundries (founded in 1916). The current president
of the GVS is Hansruedi Spiess, General Managing Director
of Fondier de Moudon Gisling SA, in the French part of Switzerland.
After 45 years of work for the Association,
Jurg Gerster will retire from his post as Managing Director
in June, 2001. His successor will be Dr. Alex Mojon. The day
to day work will continue to be taken care of by Mrs. Romy
Planzer.
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr. Alex Mojon
Giesserei-Verband der Schweiz - GVS
Swiss Foundry Association
Konradstrasse 9
Postfach 71 90
CH-8023 Zurich
E-mail: a.mojon@jgp.ch
Telephone: 04 11 2 71 90 90
Fax: 04 11 2 71 92 92
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