Following two successive years of industrial production decline, including a 7% fall in 2020, the EU’s production of manufactured goods rebounded in 2021. The latest data from Eurostat indicate an 8% increase in the production of manufactured goods in 2021 compared with 2020.
Between 2011 and 2014, the EU’s production slightly decreased for two consecutive years 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 Member States had a significant impact on the EU’s industrial production in 2020, but 2021 showed increases in production in all the industrial activity groups.
In nominal terms, the EU’s value of sold production jumped from €4 581 billion in 2020 to €5 209 billion in 2021, by 14%.
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.
Source dataset: DS_056120
Manufacturing of basic metals and fabricated metal products increased by 28%
Looking at the top seven groups of manufacturing activities, the highest jump in production value was recorded in the manufacturing of basic metals and fabricated metal products. This group showed a 28% increase in production value (at current prices) from €611 million in 2020 to €782 million in 2021.
This group was followed by the manufacturing of chemical products (€372 million in 2020 to €456 million in 2021) with a 23% increase in sold production value and manufacturing of rubber and plastic products and other non-metallic mineral products (€377 million to €440 million) with a 17% raise.
Source dataset: DS_056120
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on industrial production
- Dedicated section on the production of manufactured goods (PRODCOM) statistics
- Database on the production of manufactured goods (PRODCOM) statistics
Methodological note:
- Data presented in this article are collected under the European Business Statistics regulation and cover the activities under sections B and C (Mining and quarrying and Manufacturing) of the NACE Rev. 2 classification and since 2019 the activity 38.32 Recovery of sorted materials.
To contact us, please visit our User Support page.
For press queries, please contact our Media Support.