According to the European Commission’s Annual Single Market Report 2021, the Energy Intensive Industries (EII) industrial ecosystem “covers chemicals, steel, paper, plastics, mining, extraction and quarrying, refineries, cement, wood, rubber, non-ferrous metals, glass, and ceramics.” In addition, the EII is closely interlinked to several downstream sectors as well as energy providers and waste and recycling industries due to their reliance on secondary raw materials.
In 2019, almost 8 million people were employed in the Energy-intensive Industries industrial ecosystem and the value-added was roughly €550 bn (or 5.9% of the EU total). In total, there were 547,745 firms in the ecosystem in 2018, with SMEs representing about 99% of these companies. In terms of company size, only 11.9% of the workers in the ecosystem are employed in companies with 0-9 persons, with 50.9% employed by an SME. 49.1% of the workers are employed in large companies and these companies account for 62.7% of the value added of the ecosystem. Aside from economic crises and the clear evident impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production value of the EII industrial ecosystem shows continuous growth.
The European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems (EMI) project has produced its first yearly report on the Energy-intensive Industries ecosystem, highlighting data on its progress in terms of its green and digital transition across several dimensions, including industrial performance, environmental impact, technology generation and uptake, start-up trends, investments and funding, and skills.
The data collected and used for this report is also shared in the data package below, relating to the abovementioned dimensions. Wherever possible, the data package allows for time series analyses, as well as comparisons among industrial ecosystems, Member States, and between the EU and other major economies such as the US and China.
