Industry
Leading industrial sectors in France:
• Construction and civil engineering
Annual turnover: 93.15 billion euros.
Five French groups (Bouygues, the leading European group,
SGE-Vivendi, GTM-Entrepose, GTM group, Eiffage and Colas) rank among the top
European construction firms.
• Agri-foodstuffs
Annual turnover: 111.9 billion euros.
Workforce: 398,000.
Leading sectors: meat and dairy production, cereals, confectionery, soft and alcoholic beverages. Leading exporter and second largest producer in the EU.
Trade surplus: 7.17 billion euros.
Number of firms: 4,200.
Main groups: Danone, Eridania Beghin-Say, Nestlé France,
Besnier, Pernod-Ricard, Seita, Sodiaal, Socopa and Bongrain.
• Chemicals
Annual turnover: 70.126 billion euros.
Workforce: 236,500.
Main firms: Air Liquide, Rhodia, Hutchinson, Atofina.
• Fashion and luxury goods
This sector includes haute couture, jewellery, luxury leather goods, perfumes, cosmetics and fine glassware.
Main groups: Yves-Saint-Laurent, Vuitton, Chanel, Baccarat, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dior, Cartier, etc.
Turnover: 31.4 billion euros.
Workforce: 222,000.
• Pharmaceuticals
Annual turnover: 28.4 billion euros.
Workforce: 94,500.
World’s fourth largest producer and fifth largest exporter.
Main firms: Sanofi-Synthélabo, Biomérieux-Pierre Fabre,
Servier and Aventis-Pharma (merger of Rhône-Poulenc and the German firm
Hoechst).
• Automobile industry
Annual turnover: 95.22 billion euros.
France is the world’s third largest exporter of cars and, in 1999, had a surplus on its trade in this sector of 8.22 billion euros.
PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) and Renault are the two main groups in the sector.
5,322,000 vehicles were produced in 2000.
Workforce: 271,920.
• Materials processing (steel, aluminium, glass, plastics, rubber)
Annual turnover: 42.79 billion euros
Among the main firms are the Usinor group (steel), Péchiney
(aluminium) and Saint Gobain, the world’s largest producer and second largest
exporter of glass; Plastic Omnium and Sommier Allibert are the two French
leaders in plastics processing and Michelin is the world’s leading tyre
manufacturer.
• Telecommunications and information and communication technology
Annual turnover: 67.23 billion euros.
34 million telephone lines.
100 million phone cards purchased in 1998.
France Telecom has 49.5% of the market, Cegetel-SFR 37.5% and Bouygues Telecom 13%.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of mobile phones, with 19 million subscribers in January 2000.
Turnover: 28.356 billion euros
In the telecommunications sector, Alcatel is the fourth largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and the world leader in transmission systems and submarine cable networks.
Digital television is represented by Thomson Multimédias, which produces digital television decoders.
E-commerce represents a turnover of 2.29 billion euros.
• Aerospace
Annual turnover: 19.85 billion euros.
Workforce: 95,300.
Main firms:
Matra Aérospatiale, (which is part of the European Airbus Industrie
consortium), Dassault Aviation, Eurocopter France, Hispano-Suiza and Snecma.
Showcase for French industry and technology:
www.industrie.gouv.fr/francetech
Research and development
National R & D expenditure amounts to 28.66 billion euros i.e. 2.2% of GDP, the third highest in the OECD.
The public sector finances 46% of it and is responsible for operating (building maintenance, salaries and laboratory equipment) the major national research centres, which include the CNRS (all fields), INSERM (medicine), INRA (agronomy), etc.
Privately-financed research (54%) focuses on advanced
technology sectors such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, automobile construction,
communications equipment and precision instruments. France ranks third among
OECD countries for research, after Japan and the United States.
