UK manufacturers' sales by product: 2020 results

• The total value of UK manufacturers' product sales was £358.7 billion in 2020, a fall of 10.8% compared with £402.2 billion in 2019; sales declined in nearly all manufacturing divisions.

• Sales within the manufacturing of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers division declined the most, falling £13.1 billion (24.9%) to £39.5 billion in 2020.

• Large petrol vehicles (above 1500cc) showed the largest decline in product sales, falling by £4.8 billion (22%) to a total of £16.9 billion in 2020; this was followed by parts for civil aircraft, declining by £3.0 billion (31.5%) to a total of £6.5 billion.

• Only two divisions saw sales increase in 2020; the manufacture of pharmaceuticals increased by £1.1 billion (8%) to a total of £14.9 billion while the manufacture of paper and paper products increased marginally by £10 million (0.1%) to £10.8 billion.

• The largest increase in product sales was from Medicaments for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, up by £969 million (14.9%) to £7.5 billion in 2020.

• Other selected products showing large value increases in 2020 included toilet paper (up 17.9% to £1.3 billion), bread (up 11.1% to £3.2 billion) and fresh or chilled cuts of beef/veal (up 6.3% to £4.5 billion).

Coronavirus related manufacturing

Increases in production of some goods related to the pandemic may have occurred, for example, personal protective equipment (PPE). However, if these were donated or offered charitably, the production would not be reflected in this release due to only capturing volume of sales and turnover generated from the sale of manufactured products.

Data collection and sources

ProdCom estimates are based on a sample of businesses surveyed annually. Data are collected from a sample of approximately 21,500 businesses, covering 240 subsectors of the mining, quarrying, and manufacturing industry sectors, and approximately 3,800 products.

It is sometimes necessary to suppress figures for certain products to avoid disclosing information about an individual business. The ProdCom technical report describes the methods used to safeguard the information provided to us in confidence. Our commentary must also avoid disclosing information about individual businesses.

ProdCom estimates are designated as National Statistics, which means that the data are produced in compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

For Division 19 (coke and refined petroleum products), only one product is included. This product is pitch and pitch coke, which is obtained from coal tar or from other mineral tars. Pitch and pitch coke is in one industry (19100: the manufacture of coke oven products) and there have been no businesses specifically classified to this industry in the ProdCom publication since 2015.

For Division 24 (the manufacture of basic metals), estimates for the manufacture of basic iron and steel, and of ferro-alloys, are not included in the overall UK ProdCom sales figures or in the divisional total. This is because they relate to an administrative source that is disclosive. Due to disclosure issues, we have combined Divisions 11 and 12 (beverages and tobacco) to allow for estimates at this level of aggregation to be made available.

Quality and methodology

The ProdCom survey methodology is outlined in the Quality and Methodology Information report and in the ProdCom technical report. Standard errors are available for most products, to inform users of the precision of the estimates.

The 2020 estimates are based on a response rate of 70.0%.