Unlike Turkey, India primarily produces for its domestic market but is actively seeking international expertise. A recent study by consultancy Munich Strategy now ranks the country among the world's most attractive growth and production locations for European machinery and plant manufacturers, including as part of China-plus-one strategies to diversify sourcing. The JMC study recommends that Europe's foundry industry pursue a cooperation strategy with India, combining European expertise with local cost efficiency.
Nearshoring has two faces
Morocco shows how quickly a country without a long foundry tradition can become a serious production location. Chinese wheel manufacturer CITIC Dicastal now produces up to six million aluminium wheels in the Atlantic Free Zone near Kenitra, using low-pressure casting, the standard process for wheel production. It also produces other castings. In early 2025, the World Economic Forum named the site Africa's first "Lighthouse Factory", a distinction awarded to highly digitalised factories.
South Korean manufacturer Hands Corporation operates another wheel plant in Tangier with a capacity of eight million units, while Stellantis plans to more than double vehicle production in Kenitra to 535,000 units a year. According to the JMC study, however, Morocco has not yet established high-pressure die casting in the strict sense, although the publication sees the country as a potential complementary location.
Megacasting in Vietnam
Vietnam's rise is even more recent, and it is taking place at the heart of the die-casting industry's core business. Korean supplier Seojin System has commissioned two megacasting cells there from Swiss machinery manufacturer Bühler, each with a clamping force of 92,000 kilonewtons – the first systems of this size in Southeast Asia. Each machine can cast up to 200,000 large structural components for electric vehicles per year, including battery trays and rear underbodies.
The counterexample to Morocco and Vietnam is currently Mexico, of all places, until recently the star of nearshoring. US tariff policy is making exports more expensive, while the OECD expects the economy to grow only slightly in 2026. The ongoing negotiations on the USMCA trade agreement are unlikely to make the situation any easier. Nearshoring therefore remains a strong trend, but also a politically vulnerable one.
Establishing a presence is harder than announcing one
Some of the supposedly new locations continue to be shaped by Chinese groups. The Moroccan wheel plants are backed by CITIC Dicastal, a Chinese company with state-owned roots, while companies such as BYD and Minth are building their own capacity in Eastern Europe. Anyone who sees this as unstoppable expansion should read the latest reports. BYD has postponed the start of series production at its first European passenger car plant in Szeged, Hungary, several times, most recently to the fourth quarter of 2026, although it was originally announced for the end of 2025. The plant planned in parallel in Turkey is on hold with no timetable, and Chery has also repeatedly revised the production start at its Barcelona site in Spain.
Both cases involve vehicle plants, not foundries, but they illustrate how difficult even the world's fastest-moving challengers find it to establish industrial value creation in Europe. The countervailing duties imposed by the EU on Chinese cars at the end of 2024 are having a different effect from what many expected. Rather than keeping Chinese manufacturers out, they are prompting them to produce within Europe, relying on local suppliers, skilled workers and approval procedures. This puts some predictions of decline into perspective and serves as a reminder that location-specific expertise, established supply chains and experienced skilled workers remain genuine competitive advantages.
Europe's hand is stronger than its mood suggests
For Europe's die-casting industry, there is both good news and bad news. On the one hand, the days when the industry only had to benchmark itself against China are over, because the second tier is already producing at relevant scale and at an increasingly high technical level. On the other hand, European technology underpins almost every rise within that second tier – from Swiss megacasting cells in Vietnam to the machines, tools and process solutions that Western European suppliers deliver to Turkey, India and North Africa. Those who view the new locations not only as rivals but also as markets and partners can participate in their growth rather than merely watch it. The JMC study sums up this approach with the phrase "cooperation rather than relocation".
No country embodies the opportunities and risks of the new global map as strongly as Morocco, where highly digitalised wheel factories are emerging while Europe's foundries compete for orders. A separate article explores whether the North African kingdom will become a key location for the European industry or a missed opportunity.
