What are the key findings regarding the impact on the value chain?
Mathieu Bernard: As always, there will be winners and losers. For example, traditionally, many small parts were manufactured separately and then assembled or welded together. With megacastings, many of these assembly steps are eliminated. Depending on the OEM, the adoption of megacastings allowed them to drop down from about 100 welded parts to a single megacasted one.
This reshuffles the entire deck of cards in an industry with growing pressure on traditional stamping, welding, and conveying, and robotized activities. Companies will need to keep a close eye on this evolution and react accordingly to remain relevant and competitive.
At the same time, new business fields are emerging, such as the manufacturing of large casting molds or the development of optimized aluminum alloys for high-pressure die casting. For giga-press manufacturers or aluminum producers, this shift could also present exciting and lucrative opportunities.