How big is the forging industry?
The forging industry is composed of those plants that; a) make parts to order for customers (referred to as custom forgings); b) make parts for their own company’s internal use (referred to as captive forgings); or c) make standard parts for resale (referred to as catalog forgings). The largest sector – custom forging – accounts for over $6 billion dollars in sales annually. These custom forgings are produced by about 250 forging companies in approximately 300 plants across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. How many people are employed by the forging industry? Approximately 45,000 people from coast to coast are employed by the forging industry in the United States and Canada. Because the modern forging process is capital intensive (requiring an abundance of heavy equipment for manufacture and the people to run and maintain it), most forging plants are small businesses which generally employ between 50 to 500 employees each, with a few larger facilities employing over 1000 people. What metal
