PRODCOM statistics

From Statistics Explained

Data from October 2012, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article analyses recent data on industrial production in the European Union (EU), based on results of the PRODCOM survey. In 2011 the sold value by products covered by PRODCOM survey amounted to EUR 4 709 billion. Even if data are collected in current price in the survey, some considerations are based on constant price (see methodology on calculation of constant price). After the 2008 crisis, the value generated by European production was reduced dramatically. The recovering process is now well engaged and even if the level of 2008 is not yet reached it gets closer to the highest value ever reached.

Figure 1: PRODCOM - yearly evolution 2007 - 2011 (base 100 in 2007)

Main statistical findings

Table 1: Evolution of sold value in constant price by Nace Division, EU27, 2008-2011 - Source: Eurostat (DS043408)

Figure 2: Share of EU-27 total of top-30 products at CPA level by value of sold production, 2011 - Source: Eurostat (DS043408)

Table 2: Top 30 Products at CPA level by value of sold production, EU-27, 2011

Table 3 : Top 5 producing countries of each of the top 30 products at CPA level by value of sold production, EU-27, 2011

Map 1: Production, share of sold production value, EU-27, 2011

As shown in Figure 1, the value of 2011 sold production is still smaller than the one of 2008 (7 % to be caught up).

After a consolidation in 2010 (+9.15 % compare to 2009), the increase in 2011 is more limited (about 1 %).

Results by activities

The analysis that follows refers to the division breakdown (first 2-digit level of the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) ).

Table 1 show the evolution of sold value in constant price from 2008 to 2011.

If the evolution in constant price for the overall production has slightly decrease since 2008 (-7.68 %), some divisions have recovered already the level of 2008. if we put aside divisions that contribute only marginally to the manufacturing total ('Metal ores' and 'Coke and refined petroleum products'), only two divisions have a net progression in constant price 'Basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations' (Division 21 : +4.76 %) and 'Leather and related products' (Division 15 : +1.63 %).

Three divisions have still more than 25 % decrease compare to 2008 :

• Wearing apparel (-32 %)
• Tobacco products (-28 %)
• Printing and recording services (-27 %)

The share of each sector remains quite stable between years (see details in attached Excel workbook). There is no sector for which its share of European production varied for more than 1 % in the last 4 years.

Results by top product groups

The analysis that follows refers to the breakdown at 6-digit level of the Classification of products by activity (CPA).

Figure 2 and Table 2 show the 30 CPA product groups with the highest value of production sold in 2011. Five product groups have each a total share representing more than 1 % of the total sold value :

• vehicles with compression-ignition internal combustion piston engine (diesel or semi-diesel);
• vehicles with spark-ignition engine of a cylinder capacity > 1 500 cm³;
• parts and accessories n.e.c., for motor vehicles:
• medicaments, containing alkaloids or derivatives thereof, but not hormones or antibiotics;
• other structures and parts of structures, plates, rods, angles, shapes and the like, of iron, steel or aluminium.

Looking at the economic activities in which products are classified, it can be noted that almost half of them belong to only two divisions and almost two thirds of them fall into only three divisions. Seven products belong to 'Manufacture of food products' (Division 10), seven to 'Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers' (Division 29), and five to the 'Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment' (Division 25).

The list of top product groups is quite stable. The top-10 product groups of 2011 were already in top-14 group in 2007.

In 2011, 'Goods vehicles, with compression-ignition internal combustion piston engine (diesel or semi-diesel), new' (ranked 14 in 2010) instead of 'Other non alcoholic beverages' (ranked 10 in 2010, 11 in 2011). The difference in term of sold value is quite limited between those 2 groups (less than EUR 100 million).

When looking to top-30 product groups, one group had a significant increase in its sold value in 2011 and entered in top 30 product groups : 'Compression-ignition internal combustion piston engines for vehicles' (+30 % compare to 2010). The group 'Television receivers, whether or not combined with radio-broadcast receivers or sound or video recording or reproduction apparatus' which appeared in 2010 in the top 30 product groups was reduced by 23 % and is 2011 ranked 45.

Products with steady increase since 2008

243 products of the 2011 list have a sold production greater than EUR 4 billion in 2011 (more than 1 ‰). On this subset 17 have their sold production values increasing every year since 2008. On those 17, 14 products have 10 % increase between 2010 and 2011. The NACE class that are most represented in this list are 20.21 "Manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations" (3 products) and 30.30 "Manufacture of air and spacecraft and related machinery" (3 products).

• 10.39.17.90 Vegetables and mixtures of vegetables, n.e.c. (excluding prepared vegetable dishes and frozen vegetables and mixtures of vegetables)
• 10.85.19.00 Other prepared dishes and meals (including frozen pizza)
• 20.30.11.50 Paints and varnishes, based on acrylic or vinyl polymers dispersed or dissolved in an aqueous medium (including enamels and lacquers)
• 21.20.12.60 Medicaments containing insulin but not antibiotics, for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, put up in measured doses or for retail sale
• 21.20.12.70 Medicaments containing corticosteroid hormones, their derivatives and structural analogues, put up in measured doses or for retail sale
• 21.20.21.40 Vaccines for human medicine
• 24.41.10.30 Silver, unwrought or in powder form (including plated with gold or platinum)
• 28.11.23.00 Gas turbines (excluding turbojets and turboprops)
• 30.20.20.00 Self-propelled railway or tramway coaches, vans and trucks, except maintenance or service vehicles
• 30.30.12.00 Turbo-jets and turbo-propellers, for civil use
• 30.30.34.00 Aeroplanes and other aircraft of an unladen weight > 15 000 kg, for civil use
• 30.30.50.90 Parts for all types of aircraft excluding propellers, rotors, under carriages, for civil use
• 33.11.19.00 Repair and maintenance of non-domestic central heating boilers
• 33.12.11.00 Repair and maintenance of engines and turbines (excluding aircraft, vehicle and cycle engines)

List of product with steady increase since 2008

Top product groups: main producer countries

Table 3 shows the five main producer countries of each of the top groups for 2011. Thirteen countries appear in the list of main producers.

Five countries are appearing more often in the top-5 list of main producer : Germany appears 30 times. France appears 26 times. Italy appears 22 times (being main producer 3 times). United Kingdom and Spain appear 20 times (never being the main producer). Germany is the only country appearing in top 5 producer countries for all products.

Considering the ranking of the countries Germany is the main producer for 20 product groups and the main producer for 4 of 5 top groups (the top 3 that are linked to car industry). France is main producers for 6 product groups. Italy is main producers for 3 product groups. The Netherlands is main producers for one product group.

European industrial production main producer countries

The five main producing countries of the top 30 product groups are also the five main producers in the European Union in terms of total value of sold production.

Three countries (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta) are not shown. According to the terms of the PRODCOM Regulation, these countries are exempted from reporting PRODCOM data to Eurostat and zero production is recorded for them for all products. The regulation stipulates that zero can be reported for any NACE class where the reporting country has less than 1 % of Community total and this is true for all NACE classes of these three countries.

Germany accounts for about a third of all EU-27 sold industrial production. France is the only other Member states that contributes more than 10 % of total production. Italy, The United Kingdom and Spain contribute between 5 and 10 % of EU production. The five countries produce over 70 % of all EU production.

Data sources and availability

The earliest data published are for 1995, for EU-15 Member States. As new countries have joined the EU, the data published by Eurostat has been extended to include the new Members. The survey is conducted during the first 6 months of each year in order to get the production levels for the previous year. Member States are required to send this data to Eurostat by 30 June. Eurostat normally publishes it for the first time in mid-July. However, countries may send revised figures at a later date and then the statistics published by Eurostat are refreshed.

Context

The evolution of PRODCOM dates back to 1985 when there were the first meetings of the working party on "Production Statistics", whose objective was to harmonise the various ways industrial production statistics were collected in the Member States.

Although statistics on production were collected in most countries, these covered the national situation, national nomenclatures were used and different survey methods were applied.

The purpose of the PRODCOM regulation is to enable these national statistics to be compared and where possible aggregated to give a picture of the developments of an industry or product in the European context. This aim became more urgent with the creation of the single market in 1992 and, with rapid changes occurring in Europe, the statistical system had to adapt to these changes.

Before data collection could begin, it was necessary to draw up a common list of products to be covered. Drawing up the PRODCOM list was a unique opportunity for Eurostat, the national statistical institutes and the European trade associations (FEBIs) to work together to produce a classification that would work on the micro, national and European level. The two principal aims were to measure production and to enable the calculation of apparent consumption by linking production statistics to international trade statistics.

In most cases, the statistics show the amount produced and sold of each product. However, for some products the total production is given: this includes not only what is sold, but also what is retained by the producer for use in the production of another product.

Production statistics are used by the European Commission and national administrations for policy-making, and by enterprises. An increasing use of the data is in climate change and other environmental statistics.

The production statistics in PRODCOM relate to two other statistical areas:

Structural business statistics give details of enterprises and their activities, so there is a link between enterprise statistics such as turnover and the sum of production measured in PRODCOM. However, the correlation between the goods produced by an enterprise and the sector in which they are registered is not always very strict, so this can affect comparisons of this kind. In addition, producers engage in other activities besides production (installation, repair and maintenance, finishing etc.) that contribute to turnover but not to the value of production. Production statistics are an important measure of sales and consumption of goods. But in order to give an accurate picture, they must be linked to import and export figures. For this reason, the production statistics published by Eurostat are accompanied by the related trade data. However trade data is collected independently using a different nomenclature (the Combined nomenclature), so there can be discrepancies between the two sets of figures.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

• European industrial production 2003 to 2007 – on the increase - Statistics in focus 68/2009

Database

• Statistics on the production of manufactured goods (prom), see:

NACE Rev. 1.1 (prodcom_n1)

Prodcom Annual Sold (NACE Rev. 1.1) (DS043408)

Prodcom Annual Total (NACE Rev. 1.1) (DS043409)

Prodcom Monthly Steel (NACE Rev. 1.1) (DS008573)

NACE Rev. 2 (prodcom_n2)

Prodcom Annual Sold (NACE Rev. 2.) (DS056120)

Prodcom Annual Total (NACE Rev. 2.) (DS056121)

Traditional external trade database access (ComExt) (comext)

Dedicated section

• Prodcom - statistics by product

Methodology / Metadata

• Prodcom - Statistics on the production of manufactured goods (Publication - Prodcom User Guide)
• Statistics on the production of manufactured goods (ESMS metadata file - prom_esms)
• The comparisons between years in this article are done in constant price. The survey collects data in current price. Constant price have been obtained using the Short-term business statistics 'Industry producer prices index - annual data'.

Source data for tables, figures and maps on this page (MS Excel)

• Download Excel file

Other information

• NACE Rev. 2 - Correspondance tables (NACE 1.1 <-> NACE 2)
• Regulation 3924/91 of 19 December 1991 on the establishment of a Community survey of industrial production
• Regulation 912/2004 of 29 April 2004 implementing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91 on the establishment of a Community survey of industrial production
• Commission Regulation (EU) No 830/2011 of 27 July 2011 establishing for 2011 the ‘Prodcom list’ of industrial products provided for by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91

External links

• United Nations Statistical Division - Correspondence between PRODCOM 2002 and CPC Ver.1.1
• Eurostat Classification server (RAMON) - Correspondence between PRODCOM 2008 and CPC Ver.2

See also

• Business economy by perspective
• Business economy by sector - NACE Rev. 1.1
• Industrial production statistics
• PRODCOM survey on production of manufactured goods (background article)