On March 12, a record number of forgers and suppliers took to Capitol Hill to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (HR 1409 and S 560), introduced in the Senate and the House just 48-hours prior to FIA's 6th Annual Lobby Day. (Click here) for participation metrics.
 
In addition to opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, FIA Lobby Day participants urged support for tax and energy policies that support the competitiveness of US forgers.  For copies of FIA's position papers on these 3 issues, (click here).
 
FIA visited a total of 33 Congressional offices on March 12, representing the following states:  California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
 
Thanks to all of our participants from the Board, the Public Policy Committee, and the Membership that helped make this the most successful Lobby Day ever!
 

If you're like the rest of the USA, you are a bit confused as to what's in the Stimulus Package. The following are two websites to help sort it out. The first allows you to search the Package by city/state, program type or keyword. Visit http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state to view. For a complete definition of the Plan, updates and a ever changing timeline of current and future Plan milestones, see the US Government's official website at http://www.recovery.gov/. 
 
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Wall Street record lows, automotive industry bailouts, bank failures, the credit squeeze, stimulus packages, green companies going gold, President Obama... for the most part, all non-existent entities at the last FIA Annual Meeting in May, 2008 - just a few short months ago. North America and the world are changing at a rapid pace. To help keep up, please plan on attending the 2009 FIA Annual Meeting of Members where we will confront and dissect most of these issues head on.

 

Scheduled for May 2-5, 2009 at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, CA, the meeting is packed with useful presentations. We'll look at the first 100 Days of the Obama Administration and how it has and will impact us personally and professionally. We'll take an extensive look at the world and domestic economic conditions and focus on the issues and countries likely to have the largest impact on us. And the largest market segment for the forging industry and one in great turmoil, we will pay special attention to the automotive industry and its present and future conditions.  Finally, a look at how more and more companies of every size are finding out that eco-efficiency can actual give your company a strategic advantage. All these topics and more will be discussed amongst attendees personally at the four general business roundtables - always a popular session.

As we realize all companies are watching their bottom lines, we have kept attendee fees to 2007 levels, in spite of increase in costs.

 

Please click here for full meeting information and registration materials.

 

The 2009 FIA Marketing Workshop date and location have been finalized. Both Member and Non-member forging and supplier sales and marketing executives and their sales representatives (when attending with principal) are encouraged to reserve September 28-29, 2009 for a business-packed agenda covering sales training and a comprehensive end use forging market outlook. The Workshop will take place at the Grand Geneva Resort about half way between Chicago and Milwaukee. Details to come this Summer. 

 

 

 

All FIA Member Custom Forging Companies in North America should have received their 2008 Annual Confidential Survey of Profits. 

NO COST to participate.  REQUIREMENT:  complete the FIA Annual Orders, Shipments & End-Use Markets survey sent to you in January.  If you have not yet completed that survey, contact FIA to receive the forms or download the PDF forms you need by clicking the link below:
 
    Impression Die (Closed Die) Form [click here] 
    Open Die Form [click here]   

    Rolled Ring Form [click here] 

The deadline to participate is April 8, 2009.  If you have not received the questionnaire, call FIA  - 216.781.6260 - and ask for Diane or Mary Ann.

 

 FIA's economic forecast firm, Global Insight, has revised their market forecast...downward for several markets. FIA Members may Click Here to see the one page quick reference Forecast Flash for March. Included in the downward projections are trucks, trailers, rail equipment and other types of capital goods. 
  

There were a record number of member company locations participating in the 2008 FIA Annual Injury and Illness Survey, 112 in all. Participating companies will receive the Summary Injury and Illness Report, listingthe forging industry's DART, (Days Away from work or job Transfer), and Recordable Incidence Rates, at no cost - the only source of such specific information. 
 
Reporting companies recorded an industry average DART Rate of 5.18, the lowest Group DART/Severity Rate since FIA started recording data in 1991. Group IV, (company size: over 326 employees), led the industry in having the lowest Recordable Incidence Rate, and also lowering their Group DART Rate. GOOD JOB EVERYONE!"
 
Plaques will be presented to companies with the lowest Recordable Incidence Rates and greatest Improvements, in each of the four size groups, during the May 2 - 5, 2009 Annual Meeting of Members, Hyatt Grand Champions Resort & Spa, in Palm Springs, CA.
 
Again this year, Safety Award Winners will be highlighted in the May/June issue of FORGING Magazine and on FIA's website, www.forging.org.           

 

FIA is pleased to announce the release of aggregate results from the 2008-2009 FIA Marketing Benchmarking Survey. This survey is only distributed once every three years. Responses are broken down by forging process to help you compare as closely as possible with your North American competitors. In addition, the impression die results had enough participation to further refine the results by company sales dollars -- small, medium and large (defined in study). In all, 41 custom forging companies submitted usable questionnaires. Participants received results at no charge.  Non-participating members interested in buying the study results may do so by contacting billie@forging.org.
 

FIA Website again sets a new record. This February, the FIA Website attracted over 54,000 Visits, with 383,922 Individual Pages Viewed, (a 25% increase over February 2008). 19% of the visits were from international visitors, making the FIA Website truly the Portal to the International Forging Community.
 
(Click here) to view/print full tracking report.
  
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Sponsors of Forge Fair 2010 will gain added visibility for their companies, demonstrating their support for the forging industry, as well as making it possible for FIA to lower Attendee Registration Fees for the second Forge Fair in a row!

Click here to view/print Program Outline