THE STRUCTURE OF THE SPAINSH INDUSTRY

Industry suppliers, such as ingredients for the Food & Beverage, spare parts for cars, machinery for production facilities, environment protection systems for manufacturing activities, and many other items, use the information of the market to set up their development strategies.

We, at SPAIN-BASE, are working to help companies by offering tailored co-operation in accordance with the targeted objectives, both market analysis or product marketing.

We are highlighting in our collection of SPAIN-blogs, the basic information to depict some of the fields where we are specialising and developing market projects.

The present SPAIN-blog is dealing with:

THE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IN SPAIN

The top key activities in the industrial production in Spain are Food and Beverage, both by volume of business and employment generated, Chemicals and petrol refining that are ranking in second position according turnover, followed by Vehicle production.

This third Spanish key manufacturing sector is the so-called transport materials sector where production of cars is the predominant activity. This area of Industry is a key factor in Spain, since a great deal of production is exported and generates a number of complementary manufacturing and employment. Nevertheless, a challenge for the country arises from that few Automotive technologies are Spanish developments, therefore car production is being threatened by a high risk of manufacturing delocalisation.

The next group of key industries are integrated by Metal products and its first transformation, Machinery and mechanical equipment, and the so-called Non-metallic products, which main refer to building materials.

Electric and Electronics production also stand out, as do the publishing industry and graphic arts. Other sectors outlining Spanish industrial production, though to a lesser degree are textiles, rubber and plastics, wood and cork. Textiles and leather production activities within the country are dramatically declining due to delocalisation processes of the Spanish firms.

Spanish industrial regions

The structure of the Spanish industrial network is typically depicted as three cores with strong industry together with little presence in the rest of the territory.

The first area is the Mediterranean coast, extending from the French border to the southeast of the peninsula. It includes the Communities of Catalonia, historically the most industrialised, and the Valencia region, with a more recent industrialisation.

The second core is located in the area of Madrid, with a particular concentration of major multinational corporation headquarters.

The third area is located in the Basque Country, which is also a traditionally industrialised area mainly in the sector of steel. Due to the declining of it, activities also underwent a transformation in the recent decades.

Andalucia, in the South, in spite of having a high rate of turnover, indeed only particular locations should be considered from the Industry development point of view. Petrochemicals and chemicals are concentrated in Cadiz and Huelva, and Food & Beverage production units, especially in oil and olive derivatives manufacturing and vegetable or fruit transformation are located mainly in Almeria, Cordoba and Sevilla.

Sources used: INE and own data