Chemicals & pharmaceuticals sector overview
The chemical and pharmaceutical industries
remain major contributors to the UK economy. The Unite membership
now extends across engineering and maintenance, supervisory,
scientific, administration, marketing and sales and management
grades, with total numbers exceeding 20,000.
Facts and figures – UK chemicals
industry
With turnover in excess of £50 billion it is one of the UK’s
largest manufacturing industries. Over the last decade it grew more
than five times faster than the average for all industry. It is
manufacturing’s number one exporter, with an annual trade surplus
of just under £5 billion. It spends over £2 billion a year on new
capital investment. R&D expenditure is equivalent to 10 per
cent of sales.
The UK chemical industry provides direct
employment for 214,000 and supports several hundred thousand
additional jobs throughout the economy. It has a relatively higher
proportion employed in medium size enterprises when compared to
other European countries. On average, full-time employee hourly
earnings are 19 per cent higher than in manufacturing
generally. This reflects high skill, productivity and training
levels.
The overall picture in the chemicals sector is
one of significant cutbacks in the bulk chemical industry with an
increasing concentration in specialty chemical production and the
growth of bio-chemical operations. This in turn has seen a
shift towards much smaller business and recent surveys indicate
that 95 per cent of the workforce is employed by small or
medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
The industry continues to see a break up of
the old giants with smaller businesses either being sold off to
management, venture capitalists or to other specialty
operators.
The
pharmaceutical sector in the UK
The pharmaceutical industry is the biggest sector investor in
R&D in the UK accounting for around 24 per cent of total
investment by business, valued at £3.2bn, about £9m a day in
2004.
The UK industry has discovered and developed
more leading medicines than any other country apart from the USA,
and as much as the rest of Europe combined. Around one in five of
the world's current 100 best-selling drugs were discovered and
developed in Britain. In 2004, 18 per cent of the
world's top 100 prescription medicines originated in the
UK.
The Industry accounts for around 0.6 per
cent of UK GDP, and the UK is one of the world's largest
exporters of pharmaceuticals by value. Industry exports in
2005 were £12.2 billion and created a trade surplus of £3.4
billion. UK domestic market accounts for 4 per cent of
world consumption. Larger markets are USA (43 per cent), Japan (12
per cent), Germany (5 per cent), and France (5 per cent).
In the UK, the industry employs around
73,000 people with about 27,000 in research & development and
generates another 250,000 jobs in related industries. The
major clusters for the pharmaceutical industry are found in the
north east, north west, south east and east of England. There is
also a significant research presence in Scotland.
Pharmaceutical’s continues to be a success
story in the UK, with major investment and continued emphasis on
research and development. Most of the major global players have a
presence in the UK, led by the UK based GSK and AstraZeneca. Like
chemicals however, the industry continues to see rationalisation
and amalgamation and merger impacting on jobs.
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