Energy use in manufacturing grows 2% in 2017

Energy use in manufacturing grew by two per cent in 2017, according to Statistics Finland.

Manufacturing consumed 519 petajoules (PJ) of energy, which was 2.1 per cent more than in the year before. Total use of electricity increased by 1.4 per cent from the previous year.

The growth in industrial production still continued, which was also visible as an increase in energy use.

Of the energy-intensive industries, especially the growth in the forest industry and the chemical industry was visible as an increase in fuel use. Industrial production is reaching the level where it was before the economic crisis in the euro area, but energy consumption has grown only to the level of three years back. Both production and energy consumption are still clearly below the peak level prior to the financial crisis.

Due to the continuing strong trends and increased capacity in the forest industry the consumption of especially wood fuels increased. Of all sources of energy, the share of wood fuels went up most strongly, in both relative and absolute terms.

The share of wood fuels of the energy consumed by manufacturing increased to 39 per cent. Of energy sources, the consumption of oil also increased.

However, consumption of other fossil fuels and peat declined more than the consumption of oil increased, so the structure of consumption continued developing in a renewable, low-emission direction.

The forest industry is still the most significant energy consumer of all industries. Its share of the energy consumed by manufacturing is close to 60 per cent. Together with the chemical industry and manufacturing of basic metals the share is almost 90 per cent.

The forest industry accounted for around one-half of the total use of electricity in manufacturing. Because the industry itself produces electricity, its share of net purchases of electricity in manufacturing is smaller, under 40 per cent of all electricity purchased.