Mar 25 2010
The automotive stamping industry provides metal auto components including hubs, fenders, body parts, moulding, trim and tops components, to vehicle manufacturers for manufacturing new automotives, as well as to aftermarket for use as a replacement for older vehicles. Although largely unnoticed, stamped components are critical to the look, integrity, feel, and overall vehicle performance.
Companies in this business pursue design and processing advances to reach unprecedented levels of agility, efficiency, and accuracy in stamping operations. Demand for automotive stamping in vehicle manufacturing market is typically driven by the number of new vehicles being produced, which in turn is a function of several macro-economic factors population growth, consumer confidence, discretionary spends, interest rates, credit availability, employment, and fuel prices. Metal stamping industry has witnessed sluggish growth from the last three decades mostly due to lack of capital resources, slowdown of added capitalization, as well as slowdown of labor productivity. The outlook for automotive stamping market in the foreseeable future indicates a continued sluggishness in developed markets with major companies in the industry announcing large-scale cutback in the number of facilities.
As stated by the new market research report on Automotive Stampings, the Asia-Pacific and Europe collectively account for about 56% share of the global market estimated in 2009. Despite the dampener cast by the recession, the automotive industry in developing nations in the medium to long-term remains encouraging. The global automotive stampings industry is expected to witness strong growth across all of the developing markets, with China poised to score the highest gains. In order to achieve success in this challenging environment, a stamper must become a technology innovator, a low-cost producer, or assembler of mechanical and electrical components. Recent advances in auto stamping sector include substitution with low-grade materials, use of environment-friendly lubricants, investigating the behavior of alloys and metals when being subject to pressurization (between the die and the punch), use of alternate materials for both dies and component parts. Development of a new breed of sheet metal stamping technologies to improve the accuracy of stamped parts to sub -millimeter (less than 1 mm) tolerances and substantially decrease the time taken to design, produce, and test sheet metal dies are also key area of focus.
Key players operating in the marketplace include AutoAlliance International Inc, Automotive Stampings and Assemblies Limited, Brainin Advance Industries LLC, Ford Motor Company, Martinrea International Inc, North American Stamping Group, Ogihara American Corporation, Stadco Ltd, TALLERES ORAN S.A., and Tower Automotive Inc, among others.
The report titled "Automotive Stampings: A Global Strategic Business Report" announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a review of industry overview, product overview, product introductions/innovations, profiles of major players, and recent industry activity. The report analyzes market data and provides analytics in value sales for major geographic markets such as US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Mexico, and rest of world.