engleski

Metal casting production in Croatia

In the past decade the metal casting industry in Croatia has gone through a difficult process of privatization and ownership transformation. Restructuring of foundries and their specialization have taken place. New markets have opened and new suppliers of production materials have taken over. A large number of foundries have acquired an ISO 9000 quality assurance certificate and ISO 14000 environmental protection certificate. It should be emphasized that all those changes have come to be in circumstances of permanent lack of working capital and investment funds, within the framework of global competition. Higher energy costs, lack of domestic raw material and higher taxes have also reduced the foundries' competitive power. This paper analyses the main characteristics of the production of metal casting in Croatia in the period between 1990 and 2002. Share of specific types of casting in entire castings production, the value of castings export, productivity and number of employed persons ware analysed and compared with the trends in other countries. The production structure of particular type of casting in Croatia is more than satisfactory, and this is true in the first place of aluminium castings and nodular cast iron. Conditions have been created for the demanding production of machined and heat-treated cast products of high quality and for orientation to the shipbuilding, automotive and engineering industries. Increased productivity and compliance with environmental criteria call for further racionalization and automation of production as well as for application of up-to-date, metalscasting and informatics technologies.

Croatia; casting production

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