Industry
Laboratory
Europa
Leading industrial sectors in France
Construction and civil engineering
Annual turnover: €137 billion.
Three French groups - Vinci, Bouygues and Eiffage - rank among the top European construction firms.
Workforce: 1,597,000
Agrifood
Annual turnover: €139.7 billion
Workforce: 390,000
Main sectors: meat and dairy production, cereals, confectionery, soft and alcoholic beverages. Leading exporter and second largest producer in the EU.
Trade surplus: €6,3 billion
Number of firms: 3,180
Main groups: Danone, Nestlé France, Lactalis, Pernod-Ricard, Altadis and Bongrain.
Chemicals
Annual turnover: €96.6 billion
Workforce: 231,400.
Main firms: Air Liquide, Rhodia, Hutchinson.
Fashion and luxury goods
This sector includes haute couture, jewellery, luxury leather goods, perfumes, cosmetics and fine glassware.
Annual turnover: €35 billion
Main groups: LVMH, PPR/Gucci group, Chanel, Hermès International.
Workforce: 150,000.
Pharmaceuticals
Annual turnover: €40.6 billion
Workforce: 100,000.
World's leading producer and third largest exporter.
Main firms: Sanofi- Aventis, Pierre Fabre, and Servier.
Automotive industry
Peugeot car factory at Poissy (Yvelines, Ile-de-France region)
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, F. de La Mure
Annual turnover: €109 billion
France is the world's fourth largest exporter of cars and, in 2005, had a surplus on its trade in this sector of €8.6 billion.
PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) and Renault are the two main groups in the sector.
5,955,600 vehicles were produced in 2005.
Workforce: 320,000
Materials processing (steel, aluminium, glass, plastics, rubber)
Annual turnover: €65.1 billion
Among the main firms are Arcelor-Mittal (steel processing), 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: €45 billion
Installed base: 38.2 million lines.
France Telecom has 47% of the market, Cegetel-SFR 35.8% and Bouygues Telecom 17.2%.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of mobile phones, with 52 million subscribers in March 2007.
In the telecommunications sector, Alcatel-Lucent 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.
In 2006 e-commerce generated net sales of €9 billion.
Aerospace
Midi-Pyrénées region, rolling out the new Airbus A380 (Toulouse)
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, F. de La Mure
Annual turnover: €32.1 billion
Workforce: 132,000.
Main firms: EADS (Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium, MBDA, etc.), Dassault Aviation, Snecma, Arianespace.
Research and development
Research laboratory
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Marco Dufour/Total Elf
National R & D expenditure amounts to €37.99 billion i.e. 2.26% of GDP, the fourth highest in the OECD.
The public sector finances 52,5% of this and is responsible for running the major national research facilities (building maintenance, salaries and laboratory equipment), which include the CNRS (all fields), INSERM (medicine), INRA (agronomy), etc.
Research financed by private enterprise (47.5%) focuses on advanced technology sectors such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, car manufacture, communications equipment and precision instruments. France ranks fourth among OECD countries for research, after Japan, the United States and Germany.
Transport
Road network
France has the world's densest and the EU's longest road network with a total of 1,079,072 km of local, secondary and main roads and motorways, including 10,492 km of motorways (second in Europe).
In 2006 80% of freight was transported by road and combined transport stabilised after declining steeply in previous years.
Rail network
TGV Atlantique high-speed train
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, SNCF-CAV-Fabbro Urtado
France had 31,000 kilometres of track on 1 January 2006. France holds the world speed record (574.8 kph) with its high-speed train (TGV), which runs on 1,876 kilometres of special track allowing trains in normal commercial operation to travel at 270 kph or more.
Annual traffic: 329 million passengers on the main network, 83 million on the TGV network, 572 million on the Île-de-France regional network and 121 million metric tons of freight (2006).
Aviation
Each year almost 160 million passengers and 4.8 billion tonne-kilometres of freight are carried. 904 aircraft (planes and helicopters) fly under the French flag.
Paris airports (ADP):
764,000 annual commercial aircraft movements (2006), 82.8 million passengers and 2.1 million metric tons of freight and mail (2006). (EU leader).
Merchant fleet
Rhône-Alpes region: river traffic, a barge sailing through Lyon
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of Equipment
212 ships (total tonnage of 4.7 million) annually transport 340 million metric tons of freight. France's fleet ranks 28th in the world for tonnage. Marseilles is the largest port in France and in the Mediterranean, and the fourth largest in Europe, handling 95.5 million metric tons of goods.
- Sources: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
- Updated: 25.06.2008
