Press Release 12/04/2019

INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS. 2017

In 2017 the turnover figure for industry increased by 5.4% and for employment by 2.7% in the Basque Country

The Basque manufacturing industry strengthened its outreach: 44.6% of sales were made abroad

The net turnover figure for companies in the industrial sector of the Basque Country was up 5.4% in 2017, whilst the number of employed people increased by 2.7%, with a total of 203,500 employees according to Eustat data. This new increase reinforced the recovery of employment in industry, a trend that started two years previously, following a long period of downward trends that started in 2008.

The increase in the net turnover figure for companies in the industrial sector was limited by the increase in expenditure on supplies, up 7.9%, restricting the growth of value added in 2017 to 2%. Although the increase in 2017 was slightly lower than that registered in 2016 (4.5%), the series of positive postings now stands at 4 years, surpassing a period of several years during which the indicator fluctuated between increases and decreases. Investment registered a downward trend in 2017 after two years of positive trends, with a decrease of 7.1%.

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Within Industry, manufacturing, accounting for 95.4% of the number of people employed, 87.6% of turnover and 87.4% of the total value added, registered a positive performance in 2017, with growth of 2.5% in the number of people employed, 3.1% in value added, and particularly in turnover which was up 7.7%.

The largest sectors in Basque industry; Metallurgy & Metal Products, Machinery & Equipment, and Transport Material, saw upward trends. These three sectors employ more than half the number of people employed in industry (54.1%), and account for 49.8% of the total value added in 2017. The performance of Metallurgy & Metal Products stood out with a 4.7% growth in its value added, an increase of 9.1% in turnover and a 2.6% rise in the number of people employed compared to the previous year. A similar trend was seen in the Transport Material sector, which registered increases of 3.2% in employment, 3% in value added and 7.1% in sales. For its part, although positive, the growth of Machinery & Equipment stood below the industry average: Up 1.7% in employment, 1.1% in value added and 1.5% in turnover.

Another significant sector in Basque industry, in terms of value added, was Electricity, Gas & Steam. In this sector, the performance of employment was positive with an increase of 7.3% in the number of people employed, whereas sales were down 11.5% and value added decreased by 10% last year.

With regard to turnover, only one other branch registered a drop: Furniture & Other Manufacturing Industries, whose sales decreased by 1.1%, although employment registered a rise of 2.2% and the growth of value added was even greater, standing at 6.6%.

Finally, despite an increase in turnover of 16.5% and maintaining its employment figure, up 0.2%, Coke Plants & Oil Refining saw a decrease of 20.7% in its value added last year.

With regard to employment and from a wider perspective, the Basque industry lost 45,733 employees between 2008 and 2017, which is a decrease of 18.3% compared to the figures from the start of this period. Almost half of this decrease corresponded to the Metallurgy & Metal Products sector, which saw its employment fall by 22.9% over this ten year period. Over the same period, Machinery & Equipment and Transport Material registered losses of 8.3% and 2.1%, respectively. Another significant sector of employment in Basque industry, Rubber & Plastics, saw a 26% drop in employment. Only three branches had positive values at the end of this ten year period: Water Supply & Sanitation, Computer & Electronic Products and Pharmaceutical Products, which stood at 18.5%, 4.8% and 10.5%, respectively.

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Basque manufacturing industry companies maintained their strategy of openness towards foreign markets. Foreign exports accounted for 44.6% of manufacturing industry sales in 2017, one tenth more than in 2016 and 11.6 points more than at the start of the crisis, in 2008. Out of the total sales, 29.4% was to the European Union while 15.2% was to the Rest of the World.

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Sales to the Rest of Spain were up 2 percentage points on total sales compared to 2016, but they have dropped by 5.5 percentage points since 2008, accounting for 31.1% of total sales in 2017. Finally, the internal market (the Basque Country) took 24.3% of the total sold, 2.1 percentage points less than in 2016.

Transport Material made 77.4% of its sales abroad, followed by Machinery & Equipment with 58.3% in 2017

By sector, Transport Material re increased its percentage of foreign sales by two tenths of a point, reaching 77.4% in 2017, whilst in 2008 exports represented 61.3%. Exports in the sector of Machinery & Equipment stood at 58.3% in 2017, and despite being half a percentage point down on exports for the previous year, this was 13.7 percentage points more than that exported in 2008. Amongst the branches with the most exports, the performance of Rubber & Plastics and Electrical Material & Equipment stood out, whose exports stood at 28% and 23.6% in 2008 and reached 45.5% and 45.9%, respectively, in 2017. This represents an increase of 0.7 points for the former and a decrease of 2.3 percentage points for the latter, compared to the previous year.

By province, all three provinces registered positive figures for the main variables. As for the number of people employed, the trend was very homogeneous: in Álava it was up 2.5%, in Bizkaia it increased by 2.6% and in Gipuzkoa it rose by 2.9%. Gipuzkoa stood out for differences in both turnover, which increased by 2.6% compared to the rise of 7.3% in Bizkaia and of 5.7% in Álava, and in value added, with a growth of 1.2% whilst Álava and Bizkaia were up 2.6% and 2.5%, respectively, all in relation to 2016.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62