Spotlight on the United States of America and Canada

Related Vendors

CUMSA

DIPROFIL Diamantprodukter AB

Planfuro Global

WBA Aachener Werkzeugbau Akademie GmbH

Werkzeugmaschinenlabor WZL RWTH Aachen

The Canadian economy and the industry

In terms of the gross domestic product (GDP), Canada has the eleventh largest economy worldwide, with a GDP per capita of €40,024 in 2014. For the last four years, the economy grew at 2.3% per year. The outlook for 2016 and 2017 is continuously positive. Canada is currently the worldwide 13th-largest export and 11th-largest import nation. The country exported goods worth €516.67bn in 2014. The three main export goods were automobiles, machines and crude oil. After Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, the crude oil reserves of Canada are the third-largest worldwide. The country features a large amount of mineral resources and is the largest producer of zinc, uranium, potassium carbonate, sulphur and nickel in the world. The wage level was at an average of €39,093 in 2013 and thereby significantly above the average for industrialised nations. On average, employees work 1,704 hours per year, consistent with the average of all industrial nations. Due to the very good educational system, Canada strives to increase the share of its high-technology sector and thereby its economic value creation depth. It also aims to reduce potential losses due to the price fluctuations of commodities. The government intends to achieve this by reducing the country’s dependency on the export of natural resources.

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Tool, die and mould making in the United States

According to the US statistics office, the number of tool and die manufacturers schrank by 25% between 1998 and 2010, going from roughly 9,000 to 5,800. Today, the industry provides 75,950 workers with employment. Tool production in 2013 increased by 21% from production levels in 2010 despite the reduction in the number of tool and die making companies. In terms of generated employment, the main centres for tool and die manufacturers are located in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The shorter duration of model life cycles and model maintenance intervals in the automotive sector necessitates an increasing demand for tools, which presently cannot be met by US, Mexican and Canadian production. With regards to the tool and die industry in the US, the production value was €12,315.23m. This number increased by 21% from €10,213.21m in 2010. In 2013, goods worth €1,141.02m weighing 23.762 tons were exported, of which €650,23m were injection moulds, €428,880m were solid and sheetmetal forming tools and €61.91m were die casting tools.

In 2013, the US imported tools worth €2,545.60m, of which €1,462.63m were injection moulds, €997,25m were solid and sheetmetal forming tools and €85,71m were die casting tools. The American trade of tools with foreign markets for 2014 is illustrated in Fig. 4. The largest trade partners for importing injection moulds are Canada, China and Japan. The US imports twice as much from its neighbouring country of Canada than from China. Injection moulds are mostly exported to Mexico, Canada and China. The value of trade with China is 10 times lower than that with Canada. The largest trade partners for importing sheetmetal and massive forming tools are Japan, Canada and South Korea, while they are exported mainly to Canada, Mexico and China. The value of trade with Canada is more than 11 times greater as that with China.

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