| Policy issues at European level affecting the metalworking or metalworking industry are handled by Orgalime’s Metal Articles Liaison Committee (MALC) and technical issues are dealt with in detail by various task forces. MALC also covers the relations of the metal articles industry with its suppliers, in particular the steel industry and its customers, and the rest of the engineering industries and the transport industry (automotive, rail and aerospace). Orgalime has therefore been reacting to this situation in a number of areas: see steel
The metal articles industry is a heterogeneous sector which includes a wide variety of products ranging from semi-finished products and goods sold to industry to end products sold directly to the consumer.
The metal articles industry is defined by chapters 24, 25 and some parts of chapter 28 of NACE rev.2, including:
- Castings of metals, which includes ferrous and non-ferrous metal castings (chapter 24.5, NACE rev.2)
- Manufacture of other products of first processing of steel & manufacture of structural metal products (metal building and construction products and railway tracks (Chapter 24.3 & 25.1 NACE rev.2)
- Tanks, reservoirs, boilers, metals containers and steam generators (chapter 25.2 and 25.3, NACE rev.2)
- Forging, which includes drop forging, close die forging, pressing, stamping and roll forming (chapter 25.5, NACE rev. 2)
- Treatment and coating of metals, which includes the manufacture of articles on turning machines and chains, the treatment of metals and general mechanical engineering on a subcontract basis (chapter 25.6, NACE rev. 2)
- Tools and finished metal goods (accounting for some 40% of production), which includes the manufacture of durable and consumer goods for use in offices, gardening and household, etc ... metal packaging and general hardware items- Manufacture of agricultural and forestry machinery (chapter 25.7, 25.9, 28.4 and 28.9, NACE rev 2).
The metalworking sector is a major manufacturing branch in its own right: the 2007 production values amounted to 507 billion euro. The sector provides around 4.2 million jobs in the EU 27.
NB: The activities referred to in the following graphic are based on the 2007 production and therefore to the NACE rev. 1 as the NACE rev. 2 is only applicable as from 1 January 2008.
ORGALIME metalworking industry
by sectors - 23 member countries
Production 2007
The industry covers a wide range of products including tools and finished metal articles (accounting for some 40 percent of production), castings, forgings, boilers and metal containers, as well as secondary transformation on contract basis, such as treatment and coating of metals. The value of production for the sector in the year 2008 is estimated at €530 billion whereas for 2009, this amount contracts up to €379 billion. As a result, output is estimated to have fallen by 18% during 2009 and the number of employees is estimated at a level of 3.6 million.
Demand from the machinery and the motor car industry fell dramatically in 2009.
The European metal goods industry is expected to reach a preliminary growth of production in 2010. The industry produces, to a large extent, inputs or products used in other engineering sectors. Demand for these has started to rise throughout 2010, thereby increasing activity and production for metal goods producers. Though the metal industry has limited dependence on exports, foreign trade has improved and contributed to the positive growth in 2010.
Since activity is expected to be high in many key client sectors of the metal goods industry, such as the machinery and car industries, the outlook for the industry is rather positive. In 2011, the growth in the volume of production is expected to continue, but at a more modest rate of some 3.7 percent.
At consumer level, companies in the sector face increasing competition from imports from countries enjoying lower labour costs while at industry level, they are caught between the major suppliers of raw materials and the major purchasers (automotive, mechanical and electrical engineering industries…). In recent years the issue of steel prices and availability of steel have been at the centre of the industry's preoccupation.
The industry is becoming more complex as companies in the metal articles sector are not only being called on by their clients to supply finished metal articles made to specification, but are more and more involved in the design. Here the challenges of the sector are twofold: the cost of investment in R&D and design, often a heavy burden for companies lacking both the financial and human resources and the problem of counterfeiting which can rapidly erode any profit derived from investment in research.
Three Directives stand out in the regulatory area of internal market legislation affecting metalworking: the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) which affects much of the tanks, reservoirs and boilers sector, the Construction Products Directive (CPD) which regulates many metal articles incorporated in buildings (fasteners, windows, doors, etc…) and the Gas Appliances Directive which will also regulate valves and pipelines components in the new revised version.
EU study on the competitiveness of the metalworking and metal articles industries
Orgalime and its members have actively contributed to this EU study on the competitiveness of the metalworking and metalworking industries (MMA). It is the first time in EU history that this sector has been analysed at EU level.
The official launch of the report took place in Bilbao in June 2010 under the Spanish Presidency of the EU. A second workshop on the study took place in December 2010 and probably a third one will be organised in 2011 under the Polish Presidency.
A full copy of the report and a video promoting the sector can be viewed here
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