Turnover in oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and electricity supply, February 2010

The turnover in Norwegian manufacturing fell by 1.7 per cent within the domestic market, while increased by 3.1 per cent in the export market according to seasonally adjusted figures. One of the major contributors to the fall in this last three-month period was machinery and equipment, which reduced its turnover by 5.4 per cent. This was mainly because of lower activity within the domestic market that showed a 14.1 per cent drop. This also applied to repair and installation of machinery, which went down by 8.5 per cent. Turnover of food products showed a total decline of 2.5 per cent, while dropping 4.5 per cent in the domestic market. One of the reasons for this development is the reduced activity within the slaughterhouse industry because of the particularly cold weather in January and February.

On the other hand, industries with increased turnover included refined petroleum, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, up by 7.7 per cent, and basic metals with a 7.8 per cent increase. A boost in production volume is one of the factors that explains this tendency in the last three-month period, (see the index of production ).

Moderate decrease in turnover from January to February

The turnover in Norwegian manufacturing fell by 0.3 per cent from January to February 2010, according to seasonally adjusted figures. This was mainly due to a strong fall of 12.7 per cent within building of ships, boats and oil platforms. In contrast, industries that buffered the fall were rubber, plastic and mineral products, up 5.8 per cent. In addition, basic metals rose by 3.7 per cent. For this last grouping, an increase in both price and volume was the major reason behind this positive output, (see producer price index ).

Decrease in turnover compared to February 2009

Unadjusted figures showed a 4.4 per cent fall in total turnover in February 2010 compared to February 2009. Building of ships, boats and oil platforms had the largest drop of 27.1 per cent, followed by both repair and installation of machinery with a fall of 19.2 per cent and machinery and equipment, down 10.2 per cent. These industrial groupings are strongly influenced by the decrease in new orders as a consequence of the falling demand within their markets.

Conversely, industries that showed strong results were refined petroleum, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and basic metals. Turnover within these industries rose by 14.4 and 7.3 per cent respectively. An increase in production volume can partially explain the result within these industries.

Norway and the Euro area

Unadjusted figures show that there was a 6.8 per cent fall in Norwegian manufacturing turnover from January 2009 to January 2010. Manufacturing turnover in the Euro area went up 0.6 per cent in the same period, according to figures published by Eurostat .