At Acme Foundry, we’ve been keeping our finger on the pulse of the American casting industry since 1905. Needless to say, we’ve seen a lot of ups and downs along the way. Here’s our take on the current trends, and the state of the industry as we head into 2027.
Setting the Stage for U.S. Manufacturing
Between supply chain disruptions, shortages, tariffs, and all of the other market forces our customers are no doubt familiar with, more and more U.S. companies have been reshoring their foundry work over the last several years.
That’s even more true for machined castings and other, similarly complex requirements: those are the products that demand precision, leaving even less room for error or delay. At the same time, adding a third-party machine shop into the mix tends to complicate the program further.
With our integrated CNC machining division and 120+ years of casting experience, these are the exact types of projects Acme Foundry excels at. Of course, we also manufacture simpler casting designs, small and large. Basically, as long as it’s cast gray iron, Acme can most likely take it on.
Putting Some Numbers Behind the Reshoring Shift
We looked into some of the numbers from the past few years to get some better context. The Reshoring Initiative reported that roughly 244,000 manufacturing jobs were announced as returning to the U.S. in 2024, which pushed the cumulative total past 2 million jobs since 2010.
From another angle, the second annual USA Reshoring Survey released this year, contract manufacturers are now quoting twice as many reshoring projects compared to last year, and 63 percent of OEMs plan U.S. capital investment through 2027.
Doing the Tariff Math
Tariffs have been a major part of that math, and a major headache for many in the industry. Steel and aluminum tariffs jumped from 25 percent to 50 percent in April, with derivative articles facing their own 25 percent rate and metal-intensive industrial equipment taxed at 15 percent through 2027. When landed costs move that much, the calculus for offshore sourcing changes fast, especially for anything metal heavy.
The Domestic Foundry Industry as a Whole
The domestic foundry industry itself is a $52 billion piece of this puzzle, and forecasters are describing a gradually improving outlook driven by tax incentives, infrastructure spending, and the ongoing pull of reshoring. That’s not runaway growth by any means, but it seems to be a steady nudge pushing many U.S. companies back to onshore foundry work. Supporting that notion, a recent survey by Kentley Insights estimated 4.6% growth in sales annually through 2030 for American foundries.
Complex Machined Castings Move to the Forefront
Simple, high-volume parts have always been easier to offshore. Complex machined castings are often a different story. These parts demand tight tolerances, consistent metallurgy, and dimensional accuracy that leaves almost no room for a shipping delay or a quality miss discovered three weeks after the container clears customs. When a casting needs secondary CNC machining, every additional handoff, every extra supplier in the chain, adds risk and time.
That’s exactly why we’ve been seeing companies prioritize reshoring for their most demanding programs first. A lot of buyers can tolerate a bit of inconsistency on a low-complexity bracket, for example. But they definitely cannot tolerate variation on a precision-machined housing that feeds directly into a production line, on automotive components that need to line up exactly for robotic assembly, on precisely dimensioned machine bases and mounting plates, etc.
When you offshore the work, and that foundry contracts a separate machine shop, every third party added to a program is another quality handoff, another lead time to manage, and another point of failure when a tariff change or material shortage hits.
Not with Acme. When casting and machining happen under one roof, with one quality system and one production schedule, your three separate vendors with three separate timelines get streamlined into one accountable process that we own from start to finish.
More than 120 Years of American Foundry Experience with Acme
As a company, Acme Foundry, has been casting quality gray iron products here in Coffeyville, Kansas for 120+ years. We’re proud of that long history of American manufacturing. But just as importantly, we bring a ton of insider knowledge and industry knowhow to every project.
Whether you’re reshoring your foundry work or just trying to set up a lean, reliable manufacturing program, there are few foundries that can compete with Acme’s experience and history of quality.