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ISSUE 042 · MATERIALS, CAPACITY, CONVERSION
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Everyone is counting shells. There are European production pledges, NATO readiness targets, and monthly delivery figures for 155mm rounds. Nobody is counting the forging presses that shape the structural metal.
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A heavy closed-die forging press squeezes heated metal billets into structural components at tens of thousands of tonnes of force. Turbine discs, landing gear, shell bodies, and submarine bulkheads are all press-forged on machines shared between civilian and military customers. Safran Aircraft Engines announced on 13 April 2026 a €150 million investment in a single 30,000-tonne press at Gennevilliers, outside Paris, operational in 2029, per its press release.
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Weber Metals in Paramount, California, an Otto Fuchs subsidiary, opened a 60,000-ton press in October 2018 after a four-year, $180 million project, per New Equipment Digest. China’s state-owned Erzhong Group has operated the world’s largest at 80,000 tonnes in Deyang, Sichuan, since 2013, per Gasparini. The two American 50,000-ton presses, built under the Air Force Heavy Press Program and operational since 1955 per ASME records, remain at privately owned plants: Howmet Aerospace operates one at Air Force Plant 47 in Cleveland, Wyman-Gordon the other at Air Force Plant 63 in Grafton, Massachusetts.
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€150 million
Safran Aircraft Engines’ investment in a single 30,000-tonne forging press at Gennevilliers. Operational date: 2029.
SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES PRESS RELEASE, 13 APRIL 2026
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PLATE · US AIR FORCE HEAVY PRESS PROGRAM, 1955
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In 1941, American rearmament plans collided with the physical equipment available to execute them. Machine tools had lead times measured in quarters. Production schedules outran the lathes, boring mills, and presses needed to fulfil them, and the manufacturing cycle for heavy equipment could not be compressed to match the urgency.
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The gap was sharpest in forging. Allied technical teams discovered after the war that German aircraft manufacturers used large closed-die presses of up to 33,000 tons to forge structural components in fewer pieces, yielding lighter and stronger airframes. The United States had nothing comparable, and after the war the Soviet Union captured Germany’s largest surviving press. The American response, beginning in 1950, was the Heavy Press Program: by 1957, ten machines, four forging presses and six extruders, at a total cost of $279 million, per ASME landmark documentation.
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The first 50,000-ton press entered service at Cleveland in May 1955, five years after the programme started. The second followed at Grafton, Massachusetts, in October. Six of the original ten machines remain in operation today.
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PLATE · SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES FORGE, GENNEVILLIERS
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On 13 April 2026, Safran Aircraft Engines announced a €150 million investment in a 30,000-tonne hydraulic forging press at Gennevilliers, outside Paris. The press will create 130 jobs and be operational by 2029, per the company’s press release. Site production is expected to nearly double by 2035.
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CEO Stéphane Cueille said the press would “strengthen our unique expertise in forging processes and contribute to our industrial and technological sovereignty.” At full rate, the press will forge 14,000 parts per year. Those parts serve the CFM International LEAP engine powering the A320neo and 737 MAX, military engines for the Rafale and A400M, and GE Aerospace high-thrust programmes.
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Cueille noted the press rounds out recent investments at Safran sites in Rennes and Le Creusot, aimed at supply chain resilience for military engine parts. Gennevilliers has more than 120 years of expertise and encompasses forging, casting, and machining.
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1955
Year the two US 50,000-ton Heavy Press Program presses entered service
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14,000/yr
Parts forged annually at full rate, Safran Gennevilliers press
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80,000 t
World’s largest forging press capacity, CNEG Deyang
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Every supply figure carries a date and a source in the text. Not a footnote. In the sentence.
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FREE. NO STOCK PICKS. NO PREDICTIONS.
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Nothing here is investment advice. No company is named as an investment.
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