Orgalime estimates that total exports for the industry reached 860 billion euros in 2003. Of total exports, 56% remained inside the EU/EFTA area and 44% were exported outside this area.

Foreign trade has increased dramatically over the past decades, and considerably more than production. One reason for this is the ongoing process of trade specialisation.

In 2002 exports fell hand in hand with production but less so, by 0.7%. Exports, unfortunately also decreased in 2003, but by a marginal 0.5%. The reason in particular was low overall EU growth as well as a decline in exports to the US market. Some export market areas, such as Eastern Europe and Asia, still provided some positive contributions. 2004 has however been a much better year, with some countries seeing a boom of exports , particularly to China.

Among the larger countries, exports from Italy were more or less unchanged whereas exports from the UK, Germany and France fell. Exports from Denmark, Austria and Spain increased, but on average very modestly.

At individual branch level, exports decreased by 0.4% in fabricated metal products and 1.3% in total electrical/ICT engineering.

It is worth noting that machinery and equipment exports increased marginally by some 0.7%, with Italy, Spain and the UK contributing the most.

Outlook for 2004: With production expected to increase slightly in 2004, growth in exports will start to pick up. A slight increase of 2.6% is foreseen in volume terms.

All Orgalime countries are expecting an increase in exports in 2004. All branches predict an increase in export volume during the current year.