Archive:Cement and concrete production 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 cement and concrete production, which is part of the other non-metallic minerals sector. The activities covered in this article correspond to two different NACE Rev 1.1 groups, which are:
- the manufacture of cement, lime and plaster (NACE Group 26.5);
- the manufacture of articles made from concrete, plaster and cement (NACE Group 26.6).
_Structural_profile,_EU-27,_2006.PNG)
Main statistical findings
Structural profile
_Index_of_production,_EU-27_(2000%3D100).PNG)
_Production_of_selected_products,_EU-27,_2007_(1).PNG)
_Expenditure,_productivity_and_profitability,_EU-27,_2006.PNG)
The EU-27’s cement and concrete manufacturing sector (NACE Groups 26.5 and 26.6) comprised 27.3 thousand enterprises in the Member States in 2006, which employed 545.2 thousand persons or the equivalent of about one person in every three (34.4 %) of those working in the activities of other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing (NACE Division 26). From a turnover of EUR 113.2 billion in 2006, the cement and concrete manufacturing sectors of the Member States together generated a total added value of EUR 35.4 billion, which represented 44.3 % of the value added created by all the activities of other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing in the EU-27. The cement, lime and plaster subsector was the smallest of the two subsectors in cement and concrete manufacturing, as it generated 29.9 % of sectoral value added and employed 15.0 % of the workforce.
Among the Member States for which data are available[1], the cement and concrete manufacturing sector in Spain was the largest, contributing 15.7 % of EU-27 value added in 2006. It was marginally bigger than in Germany (14.9 % of EU-27 value added) and Italy (14.0 %), with France (12.3 %) and the United Kingdom (10.6 %) a little smaller still. Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania (all 2005) and Greece were relatively specialised[2] in the manufacture of cement and concrete, the contribution of this sector to the value added generated across their respective non-financial business economies being between two and three times the EU-27 average.
Between 1997 and 2007, the EU-27’s production index for cement, lime and plaster closely followed the development for industry (NACE Sections C to E) as a whole, including a temporary levelling off in output in 2001 and 2002. This short period of stability in the production index for cement, lime and plaster contrasted with cutbacks in the output of articles of concrete, plaster and cement in the same two years and explains much of the difference in the rate of growth in the two indices over the ten years through to 2007 (an average 2.2 % per year compared with 1.7 % per year).
Expenditure and productivity
A little over two fifths (42.8 %) of the tangible investment made within other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing activities of the EU-27 in 2005 was invested within the cement and concrete sector. Tangible investment in the sector of EUR 5.6 billion in 2005 was the equivalent of 17.8 % of the added value generated in this sector, an almost identical investment rate to that for other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing as a whole in 2005.
Although average personnel costs of EUR 33.9 thousand per employee within the EU-27’s cement and concrete manufacturing sector were just over one tenth higher than the average for other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing in 2006, they accounted for a lower share of operating expenditure (18.3 % compared with 21.6 %).
On average, each person employed within the EU-27’s cement and concrete manufacturing sector generated EUR 64.9 thousand of added value in 2006, almost 30 % more than the average for the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products. Even when adjusting productivity for personnel costs, the resulting wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (191.4 %) of the EU-27’s cement and concrete manufacturing sector remained much higher than the corresponding ratio (164.5 %) for the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products in 2006. The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (290.9 %) of the EU-27’s cement, lime and plaster manufacturing subsector was significantly higher than that for the manufacture of articles of concrete, plaster and cement subsector (167.5 %), and was the third highest ratio among all of the manufacturing NACE groups in 2006, lower only than the reproduction of recorded media (NACE Group 22.3) and the manufacture of refined petroleum products (NACE Group 23.2).
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.
Other data sources include short-term statistics (STS) and the PRODCOM statistics on the production of manufactured goods.
Context
The processes of transforming mineral raw materials such as clay, lime, sand or stone into other non-metallic mineral products (for use, among others, by construction, food and beverages manufacturing, or households in the form of consumer durables) tend to be energy-intensive. Indeed, energy costs accounted for 9.5 % of the purchases of goods and services in the EU’s other non-metallic mineral products manufacturing sector in 2006, the second highest ratio after non-energy mining and quarrying (NACE Subsection CB) among the industrial structural business statistics sectors. Within this sector, the share of energy costs in purchases of goods and services reached 14.9 % for the EU-27’s ceramic goods and clay products manufacturing subsector.
Current policy initiatives are focused on environmental impacts, energy strategies, and health and safety. Under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), independent consultants delivered studies to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry on the competitiveness of the ceramics and glass sectors in October 2008.
Challenges were identified, including ensuring the availability of energy and raw materials at affordable prices, the need to minimise energy waste, reduce energy use, as well as maintaining emissions within targets and removing tariff and non-tariff international barriers to trade. Suggested areas of development were a focus on the high quality and high value products end of the market, investment in cleaner technologies and environmental management systems, investment in more efficient and flexible automation technologies, improved and more targeted skills training programmes and efforts at a policy level to establish EU environmental regulations on a global platform.
The production of cement is a two-step process that involves producing a clinker from raw materials (mainly limestone and clay) that is heated within a kiln at an intense heat, before being cooled at 100oC – 200oC. In a second step, gypsum and sometimes additions like coal fly ash are added to the clinker and ground to a fine cement powder. Concrete is a solid material that is made of cement, mixed with water, aggregates, sand and usually some admixtures.
See also
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European Business: Facts and figures - 2009 edition