July 24, 2023
Following two successive decreases, including a 7 % fall in 2020, the EU’s production of manufactured goods has been recovering and growing. The EU’s industrial production went up 8 % in 2021 compared with 2020 and then continued its upward trend with a 5% increase in 2022 compared with 2021.
Between 2012 and 2014, the EU’s production decreased slightly before starting a gradual increase until 2018. In 2019, the value of sold production registered a small decrease, then dropped more sharply in 2020 due to the pandemic’s effects. The outbreak of COVID-19 and related containment measures widely introduced by the EU countries had a significant impact on the EU’s industrial production in 2020, but 2021 and 2022 showed increases in production in all the industrial activity groups.
In nominal terms, the EU’s value of sold production jumped from EUR 5209 billion in 2021 to EUR 6179 billion in 2022, indicating a 19 % increase.
This information comes from data on the production of manufactured goods published by Eurostat. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on industrial production, which also includes analysis by country and sector.
Value of sold production of manufacturing of basic metals and fabricated metal products increased by 42 %
Looking at the top seven groups of manufacturing activities, the highest jump in sold production value was recorded in the manufacturing of basic metals and fabricated metal products, with a 42 % increase in production value (at current prices) from EUR 788 billion in 2021 to EUR 1118 billion in 2022.
This group was followed by the manufacturing of food, beverages and tobacco (EUR 872 billion in 2021 to EUR 1021 billion in 2022), with a 17 % increase in sold production value, and by the manufacturing of chemicals (EUR 460 billion to EUR 547 billion), with a 19 % growth in sold production value. The production of rubber and plastic products (EUR 437 billion to EUR 508 billion) grew by 16 %, and machinery and equipment (EUR 512 billion to EUR 562 billion) by 10 %.
