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Inhalt

Chemical industry in NRW

NRW is Germany’s most important location for chemicals. It is distinguished by its first-class research, its special mixture of a broad mid-market and numerous internationally successful large corporations in the heart of a strongly globally operating chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Europe. As a chemical location, NRW ranks 4th in the EU and 11th in the world in terms of sales with over 46.7 billion euros. In 2010, the NRW share of annual German sales was 35.1 percent. The number of people employed in this industry was around 88,500 (28.4 percent share of the German total).

Around 70 percent of all substances manufactured by the chemical industry go into industrial processing. As a central materials supplier the chemical industry is responsible for initiating a large proportion of the innovations in these value added chains. For this reason the chemical industry is also referred to as the innovation engine for industry as a whole. The major chemical companies include ALTANA, Bayer, Evonik Industries, Henkel and LANXESS.

Number of companies * NRW's share of German companies	406 26.3 %
Employees * NRW's share of German employees	88,508 28.4 %
Sales * Thereof foreign sales NRW's share of German sales	46.7 EUR bn 53.6 % 35.1 %
Average monthly earnings	4,522 EUR
Exports ** NRW's share of German exports	26.5 EUR bn 29.2%
Imports ** NRW's share of German imports	11.4 EUR bn 24.8 %

Source: IT.NRW; data: as of 2010
* the figures refer to the manufacture of chemical products (NACE Code 20; not including pharma) by companies with 20 and more employees; they are based on the new "Classification of Economic Activities (WZ 2008)"
** the figures refer to foreign trade statistics North Rhine-Westphalia

 

The most important buyer countries (in %)

The most important supplier countries (in %)

Source: IT.NRW, Foreign trade statistics for North Rhine-Westphalia; data: as of 2010

• www.chemcologne.de
• www.chemiste.de
• www.nrwchemie.de

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