Manufacturing in the United Kingdom Essay

United Kingdom (UK) is very well known for its manufacturing sector among the other leading manufacturing countries in the world. The manufacturing company in the UK is a very diverse one which comprises of a number of different industries, technology and activities. Following the statistics by the World Bank in 2014, UK was ranked number 5 after United States, China, Japan and Germany in terms of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). UKs GDP is valued at 2,941,886 (millions of US$).
Manufacturing is the third largest sector in the UK economy, after business services and the retail sector in terms of share of UK GDP. In 2009, the UK manufacturing sector generated around £140b in gross value added (GVA), representing just over 11% of the UK economy. GVA is the measure of the value of goods and services produces in an area, industry or sector of an economy. In national accounts, GVA is output minus intermediate consumption. GVA is very important as it is used to estimate the GDP value of the country. With that being said, UK also have employed around 2.6 million people, representing over 8% of the UK workforce. As mentioned before, UK has a very diverse economy which comprises of a variety of industries. Below is a list of the types of industries that are available in the UK and has been defined as the 2007 Statistical Industry Classification (SIC) code system. In 2009, there were four major industries which were food, beverages and tobacco, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, publishing and printing, and fabricated metals.
o Food, beverage and tobacco products
o Textiles and textile products
o Wood and wood products
o Pulp, paper and paper products
o Publishing and printing
o Coke, petroleum products and nuclear fuel
o Chemicals, chemical products and manmade fibres
o Rubber and plastic products
o Other nonmetallic mineral products
o Other machinery and equipment
o Electrical and optical equipment
o Transport equipment
As mentioned, there is a vast variety of industries in the UK economy. This has played a very big role in ensuring that UK is able to compete with the other big countries such as the United States, France and Germany. The four main industries in the UK which were food, beverages and tobacco, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, publishing and printing, and fabricated metals which has contributed to the total manufacturing gross value added and employment which was accounted for approximately 46% and 43% respectively. Figure 1 shows the GVA and the employment stats for the different industries in the UK for the year 2009
On that note, it is important to point out that since the last fifteen years, the economy in the UK has changed in terms of relative economic importance of different manufacturing industries. In addition, the above statement is related to the increase in technology industries compared to the thirteen industries that initially was the main manufacturing industries for the UK. The figure below shows the changes that have occurred in terms of higher technology industries and lower technology industries.