• North Rhine-Westphalia at a glance
  • Good reasons for NRW
  • Facts & figures
    • Economic region
    • Trading partners
    • Economic structure
    • Transportation and traffic
    • Research and development
    • Trade fair location
    • Financial center
    • Culture
    • Leisure
    • Sports
  • Regions
• Important Industries
• Investment Guide to NRW
• Commercial Sites
• Event Management
• Location Marketing Campaign

Inhalt

Top location for manufacturers and suppliers

The economy of North Rhine-Westphalia comprises a mixture of large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With 763,000 SMEs, this segment provides about 70.6 percent of all jobs and generates 42 percent of the net value-added.

At the same time, 19 of the 50 German companies with the highest sales are based in NRW, including E.ON, Metro, Deutsche Telekom, Rewe, RWE and Bayer.

With the Metropole Ruhr as its core, NRW is the strongest industrial region in Europe. NRW is home to large industrial corporations of world standing as well as dozens of smaller companies which are leaders in their respective business fields. In 2009, the industrial enterprises based in NRW generated sales of 280.2 billion euros – which is 20.5 percent of industrial sales in Germany. 19.6 percent of the employed population of NRW work in the industrial sector.

Sales according to sectors in 2009 (in EUR bn)

Source: IT.NRW 2010; the figures refer to companies with 20 and more employees

 

Mechanical engineering: The biggest industrial employer in NRW is mechanical engineering with more than 197,000 employees (21.1 percent share of German total). Important mechanical engineering companies include Claas, GEA, Gildemeister and SMS. In 2009, the more than 1,400 companies in NRW accounted for 22.9 percent of annual sales in Germany.

Chemicals (without pharmaceuticals): NRW is Germany's most important location for the chemical industry. As a chemical location, NRW ranks 6th in the EU and 11th in the world in terms of sales. In 2009, the NRW share of annual German sales was 34.1 percent. The number of people employed in this industry was around 85,200 (27.7 percent share of German total). The number of NRW companies was more than 400. The major chemical companies include ALTANA, Bayer, Cognis, Evonik Industries, Henkel, and LANXESS.

 

Strong industry offers good environment for service providers

Nowhere else in Germany do industry-related service providers (e.g. consultancies, engineering offices, EDP, R&D) – many of which are business partners to industrial companies – contribute so much to innovation and value added as in North Rhine-Westphalia. The strength of industry in NRW is due in no small measure to the strength of these industry-related service providers.

Nearly 30 percent of the sales generated in the narrower sense by industry-related service providers in Germany comes from North Rhine-Westphalia – more than in any other state. The same is true of employment: Around 28.0 percent of all people employed in industry-related services in Germany work in NRW. Nearly 24.2 percent of the companies from the associated economic sectors are also located here.

Structural change: In 1970, 55.7 percent of the state's gross value added was generated in industry and only 42.3 percent in the service sector. By 2009, this ratio had been more than reversed: the service sector dominated in North Rhine-Westphalia with 73.2 percent as compared to industry with 26.2 percent.

Gross value added 2009 - EUR 466 billion

Sources: IT.NRW

The number of people employed in the production sector decreased between 1970 and 2009 from 3.8 to 2.1 million. In the service sector, the figure grew by more than a million to 6.5 million.

Big employers in the service sector in NRW are: Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Lufthansa, Bertelsmann, and Vodafone D2.

Back Top Printable version Privacy policy