August 2026 Volume 8

MEMBERS SPEAK

A VIEW FROM THE INDUSTRIAL MIDDLE What the North American Forging Industry Can See By Robert Dimitrieff

Why the Forging Industry Sees Things Others Don't The central idea of this article is straightforward: the forging industry operates in what I describe as the industrial middle. We are neither exclusively upstream producers of raw material nor downstream manufacturers of finished product. Instead, we connect almost every major layer of industrial activity to each other. That position provides an unusually broad perspective on how industrial ecosystems evolve and function. Forging companies support mining and extraction, refining and chemical processing, oil and gas, nuclear power, hydroelectric generation, marine propulsion, transportation, aerospace, defence, utilities and advanced manufacturing. Our products become part of turbines, pressure vessels, propulsion systems, heavy machinery, industrial equipment and critical infrastructure. Because these markets are interconnected, changes in one sector often become visible to us before they are apparent elsewhere or to others. Governments understandably organize themselves around sectors. One department focuses on defence, another on energy, another on transportation. Companies in those sectors naturally concentrate on their own priorities. Forging companies, however, operate horizontally across the value chain. We see where materials originate, where processing capacity exists, where bottlenecks develop, where investment is increasing, and where qualified suppliers are disappearing. That perspective has become strategically important. Recent policy debates increasingly focus on industrial resilience, sovereign capability, allied supply chains and domestic production. These are not abstract concepts for companies that work across the manufacturing economy every day. They are practical realities reflected in purchasing decisions, capital investment, workforce availability, metallurgical capability and customer demand. Industrial sovereignty should not be confused with industrial isolation. Canada and the United States possess one of the world's most integrated manufacturing ecosystems. Canadian companies routinely supply American customers, while American producers provide essential materials and technologies to Canadian manufacturers. Strengthening resilience therefore requires balancing domestic capability with trusted continental partnerships rather than viewing them as competing objectives. As governments make major investments in enhancing industrial capacity, success will depend not just on the amount of funding committed but also on understanding how industrial systems actually operate. Companies working from the industrial middle can contribute practical insight into where capacity already exists, where vulnerabilities remain and which investments are likely to produce the greatest long-term resilience.

Robert Dimitrieff is Chair of the Forging Industry Association's Canada Advisory Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Patriot Forge Corporation. The views expressed are his own and are informed by ongoing discussions within the Committee regarding trade, industrial resilience, energy, defence, and the future of North American manufacturing. The World Has Changed Since 2020 In February 2020, I wrote in this publication that North America's manufacturing capacity formed part of the broader foundation that keeps our societies safe, free, and competitive. At the time, that argument was not widely accepted. Manufacturing was still discussed primarily through the lenses of cost, productivity, globalization and efficiency. Supply chains were expected to function with remarkable reliability, and few policymakers viewed industrial capacity as a strategic asset in its own right. Six years later, the strategic landscape has changed entirely. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains that many believed had been optimized beyond failure. Russia's invasion of Ukraine demonstrated that military power depends not only on weapons already in stock but on the industrial ability to replenish equipment, sustain production and repair infrastructure over extended periods. Heightened geopolitical competition, growing concern over critical infrastructure, cyber threats, and a renewed focus on energy security have further reinforced the same lesson: industrial resilience is no longer a secondary economic issue. It has become a crucial national security priority. Over the past year, members of the FIA Canada Advisory Committee have discussed these developments from the perspective of companies operating throughout North America. Our conversations have covered defence procurement, tariffs, energy, nuclear power, workforce development, critical minerals, infrastructure investment and the resilience of integrated Canada– United States supply chains. Although these discussions touched many different industries, they consistently pointed toward one conclusion: the forging industry occupies a unique position from which to observe how the broader industrial system actually functions. This article reflects my own observations, informed by those discussions. Its purpose is not simply to comment on current government policy but to explain why the forging industry often sees emerging challenges earlier than others and why that perspective may become increasingly valuable as governments rebuild industrial capability across North America.

68 FIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2026