SIC 3365 Aluminum Foundries

Encyclopedia of American Industries | 2005 | Copyright

SIC 3365
ALUMINUM FOUNDRIES

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing aluminum (including alloys) castings, except die-castings, which are classified in SIC 3363: Aluminum Die-Castings.

NAICS Code(s)

331524 (Aluminum Foundries)

Industry Snapshot

Aluminum foundries create castings by pouring heated, liquefied metal into hollowed-out molds. As the molten metal cools, it hardens and assumes the shape created by the mold's cavity. Aluminum foundries typically work with metal purchased in the form of ingots from primary producers or from secondary aluminum recyclers. Some foundries located in close proximity to primary smelters obtain aluminum in molten form.

Aluminum foundry shipments grew to $4.41 billion in 2000, up from $4.22 billion in 1999 and from $3.91 billion in 1997. Although industry shipments grew steadily throughout the late 1990s, employment declined slightly from 35,234 in 1998 to 35,108 in 2000.

The largest user of aluminum castings is the automotive industry. Overall automotive content doubled in the 1990s, as car companies incorporated more aluminum to help reduce vehicle weight and meet federally mandated fuel efficiency standards. In the late 1990s, 92.5 percent of all aluminum used in the automotive industry was in the form of castings. The second largest market for aluminum was in containers and packaging such as food containers, beverage cans, and institutional and household foil. Building and construction were the third largest market for cast aluminum products.

A total of 625 establishments were involved in aluminum casting in the late 1990s. Only 276 of these companies employed 20 or more workers. With 81 companies, California had the greatest number of aluminum foundries in the United States, followed by Ohio with 80, and Pennsylvania with 45.

Background and Development

Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust, but it never occurs naturally in isolation. It is a component of many gem stones such as rubies, turquoise, and jade, and it exists in the mineral bauxite. Clays with high aluminum content were used to make pottery in prehistoric times, and aluminum compounds were used by several ancient civilizations as well. The ability to break the chemical bonds between aluminum and other elements to produce the isolated metal was first discovered during...

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