Industrial manufacturing

The global industrial manufacturing shift from heavy metals to digital enhanced industrial manufacturing is accelerating as we enter the 2020s. European industrial manufacturers need to increase their share of the digital industrial manufacturing to remain on par with their global competitors such as the US, China, Russia, Japan, India, Korea, Israel and so on. The EU industrial manufacturing needs to innovate from medium technology labor intensive activities to high R&D digital intensive activities.

EU industrial manufacturing shifts
Since the 1970’s as global manufacturing competition increased and the digital era began, the declining trend of EU manufactured goods has continued. Naturally, the EU would like to reverse this decline to the previous industrial manufacturing volumes of the 1970s, however, changing social demands such as the carbon-neutral energy policy does not support previous manufacturing outputs. Instead, the EU should increase RD and participation in the latest industrial manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, metrology, quantum computing and so on.

Similarly, the decline in industrial manufacturing caused a reduction in employment in this EU sector. From 1975 to 2015 jobs continued to decrease as manufacturers moved off shore to Asian countries for cheaper labor costs. As a result of this gradual and continual decline, EU’s share of the global industrial manufacturing market has declined especially after 2009. As previously noted, there are no reversing trend currently for the EU industrial manufacturing sector.

European Union country value added industrial manufacturing
For Europe most value from industrial manufacturing comes from global exports despite declining EU manufacturing overall. In fact, manufactured goods account for more than two-thirds of EU exports. Additionally, EU participation in global value chains have also increased trade volumes with emerging markets.

European Union country value added industrial manufacturing
For Europe most value from industrial manufacturing comes from global exports despite declining EU manufacturing overall. In fact, manufactured goods account for more than two-thirds of EU exports. Additionally, EU participation in global value chains have also increased trade volumes with emerging markets.

Specifically, EU manufacturing among individual countries vary greatly. For instance in Germany and Ireland industrial manufacturing value added is over 20 percent of total value added. In contrast, the value added manufacturing is under 10 percent for the EU countries of Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, and the UK. For industrial manufacturing employment, the highest concentration is in central and eastern European countries such as Estonia and Croatia. Although there were no increase in manufacturing employment, these countries saw the least amount of the reduction in manufacturing employment:

  • Lithuania
  • Poland
  • Romania
  • Czech

In contrast, the largest reduction in industrial manufacturing employment occurred in these EU countries:

  • Malta
  • Ireland
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • The UK
  • Finland

Additionally, the manufacturing employment reductions has been counteracted by increased manufacturing productivity in several countries. So, these EU countries are already shifting to higher productivity, RD, industrial manufacturing activities. They are:

  • Hungary
  • Slovenia
  • Germany
  • Estonia
  • Denmark
  • Ireland
  • Spain

 

The innovative shift of industrial manufacturing from heavy metals and production lines to digital enhanced manufacturing is continuing and even increasing in several EU countries. By assimilating the digital era into modern industrial manufacturing new jobs and increased productivity are being realized. New innovative industrial manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, new materials, robotics, smart communication, AI, IoT, machine learning and so on are completing EU’s shift from old industrial manufacturing to new digital, smart industrial manufacturing.