Following the recent article concerning the plastic processing and production industry in Poland today we turn our attention to the overall industrial production situation in this country and we provide some core figures concerning the development of the metal industry in a previous year.
The overall situation across the sectors
The general figures concerning the industrial production shows a small growth (0,9%) comparing to they results in 2011. Although it is still classified as an increase the development slowdown in the market is well visible, as the growth in 2011 comparing to 2010 reached the level of 7.7%.
Majority of the sectors grew steadily – 21 out of 34 classified recorded a positive value. The biggest increase was reported in chemicals – 7%, electrical equipment – 6,3%, plant and machinery – 5.5%. metal products – 5,3% and pulp and paper – 5,1%. Among the ones that decreased the most were furniture – down by 9,1%, vehicles – down by 6,8% and pharmaceuticals – down by 5,7%.
Metal industry
In the above paragraph we also see that the sectors influencing the metal market the most – plant and machinery together with metal products recorded some considerably positive values. As aforementioned the metallurgy and steel industries in Poland have also shown signals of a high activity. Let us have some insight on what these signals were.
2012 proved to be a moderately good year for a metal industry in Poland. The shipment of the metal products rose by 5.3% comparing to 2011. This growth was highly influenced by a considerably high demand in metals processing and coating sector and metal fabricated components for the construction sector.
These figures were backed with an encouraging results in plant and machinery engineering where Poland recorded an increase first time since 2009 (see graph above). In 2012 this growth went up to 5.5% comparing to the figures from 2011. According to the GUS (Główny Urząd Statystyczny – en. Central Statistical Office) the growth in machine engineering was ensured by a rising demand for special-purpose machinery and by agricultural and forestry machinery.
There are two more sectors that need to be taken into account while considering the metal processing industry – automotive and home appliances.
The former has recorded something that can only be described as a significant decrease. The overall production in this sector (including all types of vehicles, spare parts and engines) went down by 6,8% comparing to the previous year (see the below graph for the details).
Much better news came from the household appliances sector which recorded a growth that made Poland a major producer of this sector in Europe. It managed to provide 5.0 million units of washing machines (up 23%), 2.2 million units of refrigerators and freezers (up 27%), 1 million units of cookers (the only decrease – by 15%) and 3.1 million units of dishwashers (up by 6%).
