During the past four years, 181 foundry-related jobs have been lost from Dunedin city, largely in response to the global downturn in mining and heavy industry.
While some workers have since found new work, the outlook for foundries around the world remains spartan, with China's economic downturn continuing to undermine any mining sector recovery.
Dwindling work is hitting New Zealand foundries hard.
Australian-listed giant Bradken, which has had a Dunedin presence for 50 years, is the latest dealing with a string of redundancies. It is looking to shed six jobs, with its Hillside staff proposed to shrink to 52.
In September, Bradken moved its 74 staff to a four-day week in an attempt to save jobs, but just weeks later in October made 11 staff redundant.
Bradken Dunedin, which makes iron and steel castings for the rail, forestry, heavy engineering and manufacturing sectors, moved to the vacant Hillside foundry in February 2013.
Farra Engineering chief executive John Whitaker said the outlook for foundry work was ''grim'', given big companies such as Bradken and American company Esco were restructuring or closing their less profitable foundries around the world.
''Given where mining is at, things are looking grim,'' Mr Whitaker said, noting Bradken's work had a high percentage of mining-related contracts, while Esco was largely mining.
Farra, which sold its foundry in 2007, had not had any redundancies during the past four years and otherwise had a static workforce of about 105-110.
''There's now excess [foundry] capacity worldwide. New Zealand was seen as a low-cost producer,'' Mr Whitaker said of work during the Australian mining boom, which lost its impetus about two years ago.
Esco has signalled it will be closing its 34-person foundry in Dunedin at the end of next month. Mr Whitaker said it was unlikely that would mean new work opportunities, as Esco was likely to switch to making its branded consumables at one of its overseas foundries.
There was also a ''double whammy'' hitting the sector, with China exports also competitively priced in some areas, Mr Whitaker said.
Craigs Investment Partners research said that last week iron ore contracts in Asia slumped to record lows amid speculation Chinese mills were reining in production as they battled losses from slumping prices and tighter credit, which in turn hurt demand for iron ore from Australia and Brazil.
With Farra out of foundry work, Mr Whitaker said it was doing medium to heavy fabrication work, including brewery, construction, port and bridge contracts at present.
Bradken's global fortunes - in the face of the withering mining sector - are reflected in revenue from the past three years.
Revenue was $A1.31billion ($NZ1.43billion) in 2013, down to $A1.13billion in 2014 and $A966million for the 2015 year to June. For the 2015 year, Bradken booked an after-tax loss of $A241million, largely from restructuring and impairment costs.
Bradken said this year it had reduced its employment and cost base by around 35%, reflecting the sales reduction from the peak of the mining cycle, which involved plant closures and substantial restructuring, which cost about $A109million.
E tu (formerly the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union) organiser Mike Kirwood said when contacted the union only had a small number of members at Bradken.
The company was faced with a downturn in work, prompting the restructuring, he said. In August 2013, 64 of Bradken's 68 staff moved to a four-day week, after missing out on a Kiwirail tender, but by December work had picked up and the company started the new year by returning to a five-day week.
Before its Hillside move, Bradken put its 0.54ha, $1.77million Dunedin foundry, near the Dunedin Railway Station, on the market.
In December 2012, about 90 workers at KiwiRail's Hillside workshops were made redundant from the facility, which in its heyday employed several hundred. In 2011, about 40 Hillside workers were made redundant.
In September this year, Esco Dunedin confirmed it would close its foundry near Dunedin's waterfront by the end of the year, with the loss of 34 jobs.
In December 2010, Dunedin-based foundry Newlcast was sold, for the second time in three and a-half years, with ownership passing from Brisbane-based AustCast to Oregon-based United States company Esco, a global supplier to the mining and construction industry.
The decades-old foundry, which at the time retained its 30 staff and management, was sold by Farra Engineering to AustCast for an undisclosed sum in mid-2007.
