Production of commodities in manufacturing, mining and quarrying, 2002

The commodity statistics show a slightly larger decrease in the manufacturing industry than the figures in the preliminary national account - that went down 3 per cent. The selection of enterprises for this statistics has changed since the 2001 survey and has complicated the possibility to compare the two years. A comparison of identical enterprises that are part in both surveys, the sales of own produced goods went down from NOK 364 billion in 2001 to NOK 350 billion in 2002.

Oil refining and chemicals and chemical products, manufacturing of basic metals and paper industry experienced large decline. For identical enterprises the decrease was 9, 15 and 12 per cent respectively. For the metal and the paper industry most of the decrease may be a result of reduced prices of aluminum and paper products.

Negative trend continues

The negative trend continued for the textile and clothing industry from 2001, reducing sales by 6 per cent. Sales also decreased in publishing and printing, primarily because of a decrease in the income from advertising.

Mining and quarrying, wood and wood products industry and other manufacturing also reduced the sales value. Parts of the decrease in other manufacturing are due to reclassification of some enterprises, from recycling to renovation.

Manufacturing of machinery and other equipment increased slightly, but experience large differences among single industrial activities. Electrical and optical equipment manufacturing suffer from a large decline, while metal products and motor vehicles manufacturing increased the sales considerably.

Manufacturing of transport equipment is the industrial activity with the highest absolute increase in sales value - due to a growth in building of oil platforms and reparation of ships.

The Commodity Statistics are based information from the 2,664 largest enterprises classified in manufacturing, mining and quarrying. These enterprises contributed to nearly 90 per cent of total production in these sectors in 2002.

The Commodity Statistics is an annual survey.

Tables:

• Table 1 Selected commodity figures for large enterprises, mining, quarrying and manufacturing. 2002
• Table 2 Commodity figures for large identical enterprises, mining, quarrying and manufacturing. 2001-2002