Business View Magazine | December 2018

40 41 the Southeast, and the west and east coasts. NADCA President, Stephen Udvardy, recently spoke with Business ViewMagazine about current challenges and topics of concern for companies in the die casting industry, and the benefits of NADCA membership.The following is an edited transcript of that conservation. BVM: When was NADCA founded and what mis- sion does the Association fulfill? Udvardy: “In 1989, NADCA became a non-profit corporation in the state of Illinois, formed from the Society of Die Casting Engineers (SDCE) and the American Die Casting Institute (ADCI).One was an educational branch, the other more of a technical entity, and it made sense to combine them into a single organization.Today,we’re the sole die casting association in North America. “Our mission is to be the world leader and re- source for stimulating continuous improvement in the die casting industry.Our mandate is to represent the industry and provide the membership base with education, training, and technical resources. We conduct R&D projects to advance the state of technology in die casting and keep our constitu- ents competitive,worldwide.We produce surveys and stats, assist with marketing for die casters and suppliers to the industry, respond to questions from our membership, and we also employ a lobby office inWashington that keeps us abreast of regulations, trade issues, and things of that nature.” BVM: Is advocacy one of your services? Udvardy: “Yes.Tariffs have been at the forefront with our members and we try to stay proactive with the issue.We’ve done various communications trying to explain the current tariffs to the industry because it can be confusing.We recently conducted NACDA a survey to see what exposure our member compa- nies have, in terms of the 301 China tariffs, as well as what type of cost and delivery impact people are seeing with the 232 aluminum and steel tariffs. “Regarding NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement),we keep members apprised of what’s happening, and when there’s an opportunity to pro- vide a position, the Association does that. In fact,we provided letters of opposition, as well as testimony, through one of our members, to the Department of Commerce when there were hearings on the alumi- num and steel tariffs. “When we see onerous regulations that don’t make sense for our industry,we may write letters to the EPA, or OSHA, if it’s a safety-related issue. Be- cause,often the regulations apply tomanufacturing in general or are targeted at a specific section of man- ufacturing,but die casting gets pulled into it where it shouldn’t.Here’s a concrete example: Companies that producemetal,whether primaryor secondary smelters, mayhave a large amount of emissions,so a standard came out and die casters were part of the population that the regulationwas targeted at,but most die cast- ers don’t smelt,or make their own alloy.Theybuy it and simply re-melt it for casting.Whenwe explained that situation,wewere able to get an exemption for a large portion of our industry.That precluded companies fromhaving to do a veryexpensive stackof emissions analyses.” BVM: Howdo you communicatewithmembership? Udvardy: “We have two levels of membership.