Lightweight construction represents 4 percent of German economic output

Lightweight construction means less use of material and reduced carbon emissions, while at the same time improving the functionality of components and products. As seen in a current study by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), lightweight construction guarantees 1.3 million jobs in Germany.

The non-material-specific and cross-industry study “Die ökonomische Bedeutung des Leichtbaus in Deutschland” [The economic importance of lightweight construction in Germany] provides a first opportunity to represent the national economic importance and potential of the transformational technology that is lightweight construction in the form of quantifiable statistics, reports the BMWK. The results of the study show that the direct amount of added value provided by lightweight construction including all relevant services is approximately 124 billion euros or roughly 4 % of the German economy. Further, in Germany around 2.9 % of jobs are directly connected to lightweight construction, which corresponds to approximately 1.3 million jobs.
Among the most important manufacturing sectors with ties to lightweight construction are car manufacturing, mechanical engineering, manufacturing of other vehicles (i.e. shipbuilding, aviation and space engineering) as well as the manufacture of metal products, all of which play key roles. The importance of the metal sector is mirrored in the patent figures. Companies from the steel and aluminium sector are among the busiest patent filers, the most active of which are steel producers Thyssenkrupp Steel and Salzgitter in the steel sector and Aleris and Novelis for aluminium, to name just a few. Metallurgical plant engineering company SMS group is a top patent filer active across several metal sectors from aluminium to steel.
Source: BMWK