Industrial and Manufacturing Contributed US$16 Trillion Worth of Value to the Worldwide Economy in 2021

The industrial and manufacturing world has seen significant change over the past few years, and the impact can be best seen in the data. According to a new global technology intelligence firm ABI Research report, the world manufacturing value add rose by around 20% from 2020 to 2021 to reach more than US$16 trillion.

“Furthermore, the five largest manufacturing verticals are automotive, computer and electronic, primary metal, food, and machinery (in that order). Together they total a sizeable 51% of global manufacturing revenues. The ‘Big 4’ manufacturing countries (China, the U.S., Japan, and Germany) continue to total over half of the world's manufacturing revenues,” says James Prestwood, Industrial and Manufacturing Technologies Research Analyst at ABI Research.

The largest manufacturing companies globally remain a mix of petroleum refining, mining, electronics, and automotive. However, nine out of the ten biggest factories in the world are automotive manufacturing plants, notably the Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant, Hyundai’s Ulsan Factory, and Kia’s Hwaseong Plant. In fact, five of the top ten plants are Kia factories. Despite this, the automotive market is not dominant in digital transformation expenditure. Interestingly, in the United States, out of the six CAPEX spends measured (machinery and equipment, computers and peripheral data processing equipment, software purchases, data processing, and other purchased computer services, communications services, and professional and technical services), the automotive industry was only the top spender for three of these. The other three were dominated by the chemical manufacturing industry, where Dow, Exxon Mobile Chemical, and Dupont are some of the largest players. However, the largest difference in spend did belong to automotive, with its data processing and other computer services coming in 481% higher than the closest second spend. “Overall, this would appear to show that within the U.S. market, at least, the automotive and chemical market remain the biggest spenders in digital transformation,” Prestwood explains.

The Manufacturing Market Data report helps to paint a comprehensive image of the world's industrial and manufacturing market. It succinctly breaks down the manufacturing industries of China, the U.S., Japan, and Germany, highlighting their similarities and discrepancies. “It is an invaluable tool for those seeking to easily and accurately size markets and identify potential high growth sectors,” Prestwood concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s 2022 Manufacturing Market Data report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial and Manufacturing Technologies research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Market Data spreadsheets are composed of deep data, market share analysis, and highly segmented, service-specific forecasts to provide detailed insight into where opportunities lie.