Archive:Fuel processing statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
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- Data from January 2009. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article belongs to a set of statistical articles which analyse the structure, development and characteristics of the various economic activities in the European Union (EU). The present article covers fuel processing, corresponding to NACE Rev 1.1 Subsection DF, which is part of the fuel and chemicals production sector. The activities covered in this article are:
- the manufacture of coke oven products, corresponding to NACE Group 23.1;
- the manufacture of refined petroleum products, corresponding to NACE Group 23.2;
- the processing of nuclear fuels, corresponding to NACE Group 23.3.
Note that these activities essentially involve the processing of products such as coal, crude oil and ores, whose extraction is covered in the article on energy extraction statistics.
_Structural_profile,_EU-27,_2006_(1).PNG)
Main statistical findings
_Structural_profile_-_ranking_of_top_five_Member_States_in_terms_of_value_added_and_persons_employed,_2006.PNG)
_Expenditure,_productivity_and_profitability,_EU-27,_2006.PNG)
Crude oil and semi-finished petroleum feedstocks are key inputs into the fuel processing process. The net transformation output of all petroleum products from refineries across the EU-27 was 720.1 million tonnes in 2006. The three main final products of the fuel processing sector were diesel oil, which accounted for a little over one third (36.9 %) of net transformation output in 2006, motor spirits (a further 21.0 %) and residual fuel oils (another 15.5 %). Refinery gas, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel kerosenes and naphtha together accounted for a combined 17.2 % of total net transformation output.
Structural profile
There were 1.3 thousand enterprises across the EU-27 for which fuel processing (NACE Subsection DF) was their main activity in 2006 and they employed 168.4 thousand persons, the equivalent of 8.1 % of the fuel processing and chemicals manufacturing (NACE Subsections DF and DG) workforce. From a turnover of EUR 439.8 billion in 2005, the EU-27’s fuel processing sector generated EUR 38.5 billion of value added, which represented a 17.8 % share of the value added generated across fuel processing and chemicals manufacturing, double the employment share.
Activities concerning the refinement of petroleum products (NACE Group 23.2) were by far the largest within the fuel processing sector; they accounted for about three quarters (76.2 %) of those employed in 2006 and an overwhelming majority (92.8 %) of value added in 2005. A little less than one fifth (17.8 %) of the sector’s workforce was employed in the processing of nuclear fuel (NACE Group 23.3) and they contributed 5.8 % of value added. The remainder, 5.9 % of the workforce and 1.5 % of value added, was recorded in the manufacture of coke oven products (NACE Group 23.1).
Among the Member States, Spain had the largest fuel processing sector in terms of value added generated (EUR 7.2 billion in 2006), accounting for a little less than one fifth (18.4 % in 2005) of the EU-27 total. Behind Spain, the next largest Member States in these terms were Poland (13.5 % of the EU-27 total) and Germany (12.9 %). Indeed, the EUR 5.2 billion of value added that the fuel processing sector generated in Poland in 2005 represented 4.3 % of the total value added of its non-financial business economy, about six times the average contribution across the EU-27. There was also strong specialisation in Hungary, the relative value added contribution being about four times the EU-27 average.
The level of the production index for fuel processing was almost the same in 2003 as in 1997, despite alternating growth and decline in output in the intervening years. However, in 2004 the output of fuel processing rose relatively strongly and output was then maintained at this higher level through to 2007. This pattern of output development largely reflected the production index for refined petroleum products, for which average growth over the ten year period through until 2007 was 0.8 % per year. During the same period, the production index of coke oven products appeared to follow a four year cycle of rising production and then declines, with growth in 2006 and 2007 confirming an overall upward development in output (at an average growth rate of 2.0 %per year).
Expenditure and productivity
Tangible investment in the EU-27’s fuel processing sector was EUR 6.4 billion in 2006. This corresponded to about one fifth (19.2 %) of all tangible investment across fuel processing and chemicals manufacturing, a slightly higher share than this sector’s share of value added.
A very high share (97.0 % in 2005) of operating expenditure in the EU-27’s fuel processing sector was committed to purchases of goods and services (including, in particular, the purchase of energy products to be processed); this was the highest share of expenditure on goods and services among all NACE divisions in the non-financial business economy with data available for 2005 or 2006.
Although a relatively small share of operating expenditure went on personnel costs (3.0 % in 2005), average personnel costs in the sector were particularly high, an average EUR 63.7 thousand per employee in 2005 for the EU-27. Within the sector, however, there were large differences in average personnel costs; those for the manufacture of coke oven products subsector were as low as EUR 20.4 thousand per employee (in 2005), while those for the manufacture of refined petroleum products subsector averaged EUR 63.5 thousand per employee in 2006 and the nuclear fuels subsector EUR 70.5 thousand per employee in 2006. The low average costs in coke oven products manufacturing can, in large part, be attributed to average personnel costs in Poland (EUR 14.4 thousand per employee in 2005), as this Member State dominated the subsector, accounting for about two thirds (61.6 %) of EU-27 value added.
The average amount of value added generated by each person employed within the EU-27’s fuel processing sector was EUR 227.2 thousand in 2005, the second highest amount among industrial NACE divisions after the extraction of crude petroleum and gas (NACE Division 11). Despite relatively high average personnel costs, the wage adjusted labour productivity ratio of the sector remained high (356.6 % in 2005), again the second highest of the industrial NACE divisions. Among the individual Member States, Poland recorded a wage adjusted labour productivity ratio of 1 955.5% in 2005, Spain also recorded a remarkably high level for this indicator (1 252.2 % in 2006).
Data sources and availability
The main part of the analysis in this article is derived from structural business statistics (SBS), including core, business statistics which are disseminated regularly, as well as information compiled on a multi-yearly basis, and the latest results from development projects.
Context
Enterprises in the fuel processing and chemicals sector operate within a highly regulated framework that extends from the supply of the raw materials, through their processing to the treatment of waste. The Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemical substances (the so-called REACH Regulation) came into force on 1 July 2007, with the main aims of improving the protection of human health and the environment from risks posed by chemicals. The first list of 15 chemicals to undergo scrutiny was published by the European Chemicals Agency in October 2008. A new European Parliament and Council Regulation on the classification, labelling and packaging of chemical substances and mixtures (CLP) was adopted in December 2008, in order to align the labelling and description of hazards around the world. The CLP Regulation entered into force on 20 January 2009, with the deadline for substance classification according to the new rules by 1 December 2010 and for mixtures by 1 June 2015.
The fuel processing and chemicals sector faces a number of key challenges; these are energy and raw materials supply, climate change and barriers to market entry in emerging countries. Against this background, the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the European Chemicals Industry, which was first proposed by the European Commission in June 2007 (COM(2007) 418), released its final strategy report in February 2009. The strategies focus on more innovation and research (see the importance of this in the article called Pharmaceuticals production statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1), the responsible use of resources and a level playing field for sourcing energy and raw materials, and a drive to open world markets.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
Main tables
Database
Dedicated section
Other information
- Decision (2007/418) of 14 June 2007 setting up the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Chemicals Industry in the European Union
- Regulation 1272/2008 of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives 67/548 and 1999/45, and amending Regulation 1907/2006