Energy Conservation Practices to Boost the Productivity and Competitiveness of US Metal Casting Industry

Abstract 1. Introduction: US metal castings industry reached 12.25 million metric tons of castings production by 2013. With the end use industry demand getting steady, the US metal casting industry is estimated to reach 14.13 million metric tons by 2018 with a CAGR of 2.8% over the period 2013-2018. The vehicle production in North America is back near record levels, with output expected to surpass 16 million units this year for the first time in more than a decade. Despite of many plant shutdowns due to the recession, automakers now in US are running many plants around the clock to keep up with rising demand yet proceeding cautiously to ensure they don't get ahead of the market. 2. Main: The US electricity price is estimated to increase as result of increase in coal and natural gas price. The coal and natural gas price are estimated to increase by 1.5% and 1.8% over the period 2015-17. In US, Industrial consumers amount to about 25% of total electricity consumption in the US, while residential & commercial customers consume about 36.21% and 34.95%, respectively, of the total electricity supplied. With increasing energy price for industrial consumers, the issues on the energy consumed by foundry type and measures to optimize the consumption by increasing productivity have been dealt in detail.