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Manufacture of Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products

September 2008

Photograph of some bricks

Introduction

This sector includes the manufacture of a diverse range of products, primarily through the modification or transformation of mined or quarried materials into products for intermediate or final consumption. These include clay products like bricks and tiles, cement, lime and plaster, concrete, shaped and finished stone, abrasive products, mineral wool and ceramic goods. Clay products, cement, concrete and plaster are used almost exclusively by the construction industry. Other products such as glass and ceramic goods (particularly tiles and sanitaryware) are similarly used in construction but also have a wide use across a broad spectrum of industries embracing metallurgy, chemicals, food and beverages, electronics and electrical and mechanical engineering. A number of glass, pottery and china goods are considered as domestic consumer items.

Processes used in the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products include grinding, mixing, cutting, shaping, and honing of sand, ceramic and other non-metallic raw material inputs. Heat is often used in the process and chemicals are frequently mixed to change the composition, purity and chemical properties of the intended product.

Employment

The sector is a relatively small one in Lancashire with an employee workforce of about 2,100 or 2.2% of the manufacturing workforce compared with a rather higher share of 3.5% in Great Britain. Given these modest employment levels there are no significant local concentrations though nearly a quarter of the industry's jobs are based in Ribble Valley with a further 45% divided fairly equally between Blackburn, Lancaster, Pendle and West Lancashire. Typical of manufacturing industry in general, 82% of the Non-metallic's workforce is male and 95% of all employees are engaged on a full-time basis (Table 1). A further 2,100 people are employed in the wholesale distribution of building materials.

Photograph of Northern Express Glass Ltd in Fleetwood Source (External) http://www.n-e-g.co.uk/index.asp

The diversity of products contained in the industry is mirrored in the diversity of companies involved. These range from plants which are parts of major national and international groups to small family-owned businesses with a handful of employees. In total there are about 140 business units classified to the non-metallics sector in Lancashire. Statistically the "average" company employs just 15 people. About 87% of companies employ fewer than 25 people and 62% employ less than five people. The handful of larger firms that employ more than 100 people provide for about 48% of the industry's total job count.

Larger local employers operating within Lancashire include (External) Castle Cement Ribblesdale Works in Clitheroe, currently producing about 1.4m tonnes of cement each year; (External) Hepworth Composites , part of Hepworth Building Products, in Padiham, manufacturers of hot pressed glass reinforced thermoset plastics (GRP) for use in the automotive, building products, telecommunications and mass transit industries; (External) Hanson Building Products , Accrington, manufacturers of the famous Accrington "NORI" bricks, tiles and special shapes; (External) Jones Stroud Insulations of Longridge, suppliers of insulation materials; (External) Lancaster GTB Systems Ltd , producers of mineral, glass and metal fibres; and (External) Northern Express Glass , Fleetwood, suppliers of insulated glass units, toughened glass and decorative glass panels. The international glass company (External) Pilkingtons have their major European Technology Centre in Lathom near Ormskirk though this facility concentrates on research and development into glass manufacturing processes and product design and is not itself directly involved in manufacturing.

Map showing the location of non-metallic mineral products establishments in Lancashire - see text for details Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry, 2006
Castle Cement Ribblesdale Works, Clitheroe Source (External) www.castlecement.co.uk/new/ribbleworks.asp

Employment Trends

The industry's peak level of employment within the County was achieved in the early 1970s when it had an employee workforce of 6,300 people (Figure 2). Employment subsequently fell steadily year-on-year with only modest cyclical up-turns, notably over the second half of the 1980s linked to the buoyancy of the economy at this time. Since its last peak in 1991 the local industry has shed a further 1,100 jobs (-34%), the major and unprecedented up-turn in construction activity across the County over recent years apparently having only a minor impact on job numbers in the Non-metallic Minerals sector locally.

Graph showing how the number of employee jobs in Lancashire's non-metallic mineral products industry has changed from 1950 to 2006 - see text for details Source Ministry of Labour/ONS - ERII Employment Records

This employment downsizing was roughly on a par with the Lancashire manufacturing average, though trends were distorted to a degree due to major structural changes stemming from merger and acquisition activity. This subsequently led to some reclassification of companies because of changes in the focus of some of their principal manufacturing operations. Within the broad industry group employment trends 1991-2006 suggested some local net growth in jobs in the production of glass fibres, in the processing of flat glass, ready-mix concrete and in the "other" non-metallic products category but elsewhere all sub-groups experienced some degree of job reduction. Numerically the largest losses were in other glass products, ceramic goods, concrete construction products, cement, lime and plaster and in brick manufacture.

General Characteristics

Nationally, the industry comprises some 4,850 separate enterprises, employing about 112,000 people and has an annual turnover of over £13.8bn, generating £5.5bn in gross value added. These activities are reckoned to account for about a third of all products used in the construction industry (others being wood, metal, plastic, etc, products).

In Lancashire the industry had turnover of £283 million in 2005, down slightly from earlier peak levels in the mid-1990s though still higher than a decade earlier and the pattern must also be seen against the backdrop of a much reduced workforce (Figure 3). Trends have been volatile mainly because of the local industry's relatively small size but it is also a fairly cyclical sector because such a large proportion of its sales are linked closely to activity in the construction industry. Overall, construction typically accounts for between a half and two-thirds of the consumption of non-metallic mineral products. Many of the products of the group (with the main exception of flat glass and tableware) are major bulky items of relatively low value, often based on local raw materials and sold primarily to local markets. Transportation costs are always a major consideration and have often deterred competition from distant sources. The sector has a relatively high reliance on energy and is a major user of fossil fuels and thus heavily involved in environmental issues regarding energy usage and atmospheric pollution. Nationally, it is reckoned that the industry spends approximately 1.5% of its turnover on environmental protection measures, a rate double that for manufacturing overall. Some sectors such as glass are also heavily engaged in materials recycling.

Graph showing how turnover, purchases, gross value added and net capital expenditure have changed in Lancashire's non-metallic mineral products industry from 1994 to 2005 - see text for details Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry

Whilst turnover of the local industry has fluctuated over recent years, the value of its production has held up better. In 2005 the Non-Metallic Mineral Products industry generated gross value added close to £86m (equivalent to 2.1% of the Lancashire manufacturing total), a figure that was much the same in real terms than a decade earlier in1995.

Despite the very traditional nature of many of its products and "old economy" image, the local Non-metallic Mineral Products industry is to a large part technologically advanced in its production processes, control systems and quality, paying above-average manufacturing wages to its employees and is fairly capital intensive. Investment per head, though erratic year-on-year because of the lumpy nature of capital expenditure and the small size of the local industry, has been double the county manufacturing average over the decade to 2005 and has been more than a third higher than that achieved in the UK industry. This has been rewarded with a level of labour productivity (gross value added per head) in 2005 that at £47,000 was higher than that being achieved in the industry nationally.

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell .

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