A year of promise.

I love the feeling of January 1. Every year I wake up refreshed with a new sense of excitement about the opportunities that will present themselves in the coming year. I also feel mentally and physically rejuvenated, able to overcome the challenges that are sure to come my way.

In reality, this last sentence is the key. How do we face the challenges that are presented to us? Do we complain about how difficult they are or do we rise to the occasion? A feature article in this issue shows how one metalcaster answered this question.

In "ME Global Helps Launch Shuttles to Space," p. 28, we see how the Duluth, Minn.-based steel caster sought out NASA to sell it on the fact that it should re-cast more than 1,000 2,200-lb. track shoes for the crawler transporters that carry the Space Shuttle and its rockets from the hanger to the launch pad. ME Global did this knowing full well that this job order would require shipment in six months.

To many metalcasters, this timeline would seem impossible, especially with the burden of aerospace quality demands hanging over your head. To ME Global, this was an opportunity to be part of an once-in-a-lifetime historic event--the return of the Space Shuttle program in May 2005 after a two-year hiatus. This opportunity meant that the metalcaster was willing to do whatever was necessary to succeed.

This meant performing a complete metallurgical evaluation of the old track shoes to determine their soundness and what was required to improve them. This meant building a preliminary pattern to begin experimenting with gating before being awarded the job. This meant the addition of 20 employees to work exclusively on the NASA project.

In the end, ME Global met the time and quality challenge NASA had set before it and delivered tile first set of track shoes in November (two months early) and the second set this month. With the fresh start of 2005 upon us, I am hoping the rest of the metalcasting industry will take a cue from ME Global and look at all its challenges as opportunities.

As an industry, we should have nothing but smiles on our face. The forecast, as discussed on p. 22, looks bright with 11% growth in shipments projected for U.S. metalcasters through 2008. With the leaner but stronger U.S. metalcasting force in existence today (in comparison to the one that existed during the last strong growth surge of the mid to late 1990s), this means that every spare lb./ $ of capacity is going to be needed to meet this growing level of casting demand. After more than three years of a buyer's market, U.S. metalcasters should start to feel the shift of the pendulum (if they haven't already) to a seller's market for metal castings delivered in a timely manner.

I guess in the end, everything comes down to whether you are a glass half-full or half-empty person. But if you are a half-empty person, I urge you to open your eyes and begin to search for casting obstacles that might be confronting your customer. For the next four years, these customers are going to need our help more than ever to deliver quality castings quickly.

While 99% of you will never have an opportunity to assist NASA in deploying the next Space Shuttle mission, I guarantee 100% of you will face various obstacles to delivering solutions to your customers. The key is to look past the obstacle to the opportunity it presents.

Best of luck in 2005 to you, our loyal readers. I am rejuvenated and ready to go ... How about you?