We recently saw a news story on a vaguely familiar website that made us think differently about metalcasting facility closings. Go check it out. We’ll wait.

(What, we can’t comment on our own news stories?)

At first blush, you might read this article and groan. “Ugh. Another metalcasting facility goes down. Woe is our industry.” But if you look at the article in another way, you might decide the most important point has been buried. In the last sentence of the second paragraph, the article reports that “TRW [Automotive] is currently exploring the sale of [its Warrenton Casting Center]…with the help of a consulting firm.”

If for no other reason, this is why MODERN CASTING has a responsibility to publish information about closings. The company in the article wants to sell a metalcasting facility, for heaven’s sake, and we have the ear of the very people who have the chops to bring it back from the dead.

Two MODERN CASTING profiles published within a year (“Boosting Production at Boose” and an article on Goldens’ Foundry and Machine, Columbus, Ga., to be printed in February) feature metalcasting facilities that had been looking to expand their existing plants but ended up buying entirely new facilities instead. Both Boose Aluminum Foundry Co. Inc., Reamstown, Pa., and Goldens’ abandoned the idea of shutting down operations to perform an expansion and decided to integrate failing plants into their business models.

These were companies that kept a close eye on the state of the industry. They knew what their options were because they read the news. And perhaps more importantly, they read the news with an open mind. Follow in their footsteps, and what looks like bad news could be the secret to your firm’s continued success.