331511

Analysis

NAICS 331511 is the 2022 national industry for iron foundries, part of 33151 (Ferrous Metal Foundries). Census lists 27 example activities under it in the official index.

Between 2018 and 2023 the number of establishments fell 16% and employment fell 7%. The 2018 count used NAICS 2017, so part of a large move can come from codes being redefined rather than from businesses opening or closing.

By establishments it ranks 1st of the 3 codes at this level within Ferrous Metal Foundries, with 52.1% of them.

County Business Patterns counts 269 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 32,020 people at an average annual payroll of $72,315 per employee (56th percentile of national industries). 10% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which points to larger operations.

Its index entries, the activities Census uses to assign businesses to this code, include cast iron brake shoes, railroad, manufacturing, cast iron pipe and pipe fittings manufacturing, cast iron railroad car wheels manufacturing and castings, compacted graphite iron, unfinished, manufacturing, among 27 in all.

Its goods appear in 35 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 7307 (tube or pipe fittings (for example, couplings, elbows…), 7325 (other cast articles of iron or steel) and 8455 (metal-rolling mills and rolls therefor; parts thereof). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.