Archive:Machinery and equipment wholesale trade statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent articles on structural business statistics see here.
- 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). According to the statistical classification of economic activities in the EU (NACE Rev 1.1), the present article covers machinery and equipment wholesale trade, corresponding to NACE Group 51.8, which is part of the wholesale trade sector. The activities covered in this article concern the wholesaling of capital goods and other final durable goods for industrial use, except those covered by motor trade. This includes the wholesaling of:
- installation equipment;
- electrical and electronic products for industrial use;
- office furniture.
._Structural_profile,_EU-27,_2006.PNG)
Main statistical findings
Structural profile
._Relative_weight_within_wholesaling_of_machinery_and_equipment,_EU-27,_2006_(%25).PNG)
._Structural_profile-_ranking_of_top_five_Member_States_in_terms_of_value_added_and_persons_employed,_2006.PNG)
Value added in the EU-27's wholesaling of machinery and equipment sector (NACE Group 51.8) was EUR 109.1 billion in 2006, derived from turnover valued at EUR 693.8 billion. As such, the wholesaling of machinery and equipment represented 21.0 % of wholesale trade (NACE Division 51) value added and 15.1 % of wholesale turnover. The wholesaling of machinery and equipment workforce numbered 1.7 million persons in the EU-27 in 2006, corresponding to 16.9 % of the wholesale trade workforce. By all three of these measures, this was the third largest wholesale trade sub-sector.
Across the eight NACE classes that make up the wholesaling of machinery and equipment sector, the miscellaneous category of wholesale of other machinery for use in industry, trade and navigation (NACE Class 51.87) was the largest, accounting for approximately one third of turnover and more than two fifths of value added and employment in the EU-27. Wholesaling of computers, peripherals and software (NACE Class 51.84) was the second largest activity in terms of the same indicators (in 2005).
Among the Member States [1], the United Kingdom had the largest machinery and equipment wholesaling sector in value added terms, ahead of France, while the latter contributed the largest proportion to EU-27 turnover and employment. In value added terms, Denmark, Belgium and the Baltic Member States were all relatively specialised in machinery and equipment wholesaling [2], where these activities contributed at least 2.6 % to the non-financial business economy's (NACE Sections C to I and K) value added; turning to older data (2004) the Netherlands was also relatively highly specialised in this sector, as it generated 3.7 % of non-financial business economy value added.
Annualised short-term statistics provide a relatively long time series for the turnover index in the EU-27’s machinery and equipment wholesaling sector. An analysis of this for the period from 1997 to 2007 shows a cyclical development that was in contrast to the uninterrupted upward path experienced by the turnover index for wholesale trade. Indeed, the turnover index in machinery and equipment wholesaling sector grew by at least 3.6 % each year from 1997 to 2000, after which there were three years of contraction with sales falling on average by 1.7 % per year. In the four following years, from 2004 to 2007, there was renewed turnover growth, as the index increased on average by 6.6 % per year, but this was nevertheless 0.9 percentage points below the average growth registered for wholesale trade during the same period.
Expenditure and productivity
The EU-27’s machinery and equipment wholesaling sector recorded a relatively low level of tangible investment: investments were valued at EUR 8.5 billion in the EU-27 in 2006, 16.0 % of the wholesale trade total, and equivalent to 7.8 % of this sector's value added, the lowest investment rate across all the wholesale trade activities presented in sub-sectors of the wholesale trade sector. Within this sector the lowest investment rate was recorded for the wholesale of other electronic parts and equipment (NACE Class 51.86), just 5.2 %, while the wholesaling of mining, construction and civil engineering machinery (NACE Class 51.82) had the highest rate, 18.8 %, more than double the average rate for the machinery and equipment wholesaling sector, and slightly higher than the non-financial business economy average.
The machinery and equipment wholesaling sector's share of operating expenditure dedicated to personnel costs was the highest (10.4 %) among the wholesale trade activities presented in sub-sectors of the wholesale trade sector. Looking in more detail within this sector, the lowest share of personnel costs in operating expenditure was 7.4 % recorded by wholesaling of computers, peripherals and software (NACE Class 51.84), which was nevertheless above the wholesale trade average (6.5 %). The highest share was 13.9 % recorded by the subsector for the wholesale of other office machinery and equipment (NACE Class 51.85).
Apparent labour productivity in the EU-27’s machinery and equipment wholesaling sector was EUR 64.6 thousand per person employed in 2006, while average personnel costs were EUR 43.3 thousand per employee – these were, by some way, the highest levels recorded for these two indicators among any of the wholesale trade activities in sub-sectors of the wholesale trade sector. The apparent labour productivity of this sector was the fourth highest among the NACE groups within the non-financial services economy (NACE Sections G to I and K), while the average personnel costs were the third highest, although for both indicators there were several more industrial activities with higher ratios. The resulting wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for EU-27 machinery and equipment wholesaling (149.4 %) was the lowest of the wholesale trade NACE groups, and was also lower than the ratio for the non-financial business economy (151.5 %).
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
The activities in NACE Division 51 cover all wholesale trade except that concerning motor vehicles and motorcycles: the wholesaling of automotive fuel is considered as a wholesale trade rather than a motor trade. This article covers resale (sale without transformation) of new and used products, as well as wholesale activities carried out on a fee or contract basis.
The wholesaling activity consists of selling to retailers or to industrial, commercial, institutional and professional users. Wholesalers can act on a fee or contract basis as agents or for their own account, buying and selling goods. The own-account wholesale sub-sectors distinguish the types of product in which the wholesaler is specialised (agricultural products, consumer goods, intermediate goods, machinery and equipment (this article)), while specialised wholesalers of other products are included in non-specialised wholesalers.
In the supply chain, wholesalers are located between producers and users, providing know-how and knowledge in markets for which they have expertise. Competition within the wholesale trade activity is often centred on providing more efficient services or more sophisticated value added services. Wholesalers can provide a range of services from basic storage and break of bulk, sorting, grading and logistics to pre- and post-production operations (for instance, labelling, packaging, bottling and installation).
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European Business: Facts and figures - 2009 edition