Steel foundries

The pre-screen cut foundries on capital. Tested, that is not quite the reason. A jobbing foundry — melt, mould, pour, clean, ship castings to someone else's drawing — is a mid-sized plant, not a mega-project: 81 of Canada's 159 foundries, 51%, employ between twenty and 199 people, and the US average is about 78 per establishment [A]. Plants of that size change hands, and an entrant would buy one and not build one, since a new melt shop would also need a new air permit. The capital is reachable. The cut is what is being bought. The American Foundry Society counts 1,750 metalcasting facilities in the United States, against 3,200 in 1991 and 6,150 in 1955, and says 75% of firms have fewer than a hundred employees [B]. That is a population that has lost 45% of its members in a generation. Some of that will be consolidation into larger plants, which a plant count cannot distinguish from closure — but for a small jobbing shop the direction is the fact that matters: each year there are fewer of you, and the ones that left did not leave because they were bought at a premium. Castings are specified by drawing and alloy, so a buyer can move a pattern to another foundry, in Ontario or in Asia, and the foundry's remaining edge is lead time and proximity on short runs. The screen did not find evidence on the two things that would overturn this: whether surviving Canadian foundries are earning more as competitors close, and whether reshoring and tariffs have turned the order book. The nearest listed comparable points the same way: Ampco-Pittsburgh's forged-and-cast segment turned $292.6M of 2025 sales into a $44.7M operating loss, and its UK roll foundry went into insolvency in October 2025 rather than finding a buyer [A]. That is a roll maker, not a jobbing shop, and no jobbing shop reports. A full study would start there, with a specific plant's customer list.