Poland remained Europe’s largest white goods producer in 2021 and overtook Germany to become the world’s second-largest exporter after China. Demand for these products could however drop in the near term due to changing lifestyles following the end of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, as well as higher input costs, says the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).
Polish plants produced an annual record 27.2 million units of white goods last year, accounting for 39% of EU output. Exports amounted to 26m units, up 15% on 2020. Shipments abroad generated €5.3 billion ($5.6 billion) and accounted for 1.85% of overall Polish exports. Germany was the largest market, taking in 26.3% of Polish white goods exports, with France taking 10.1%.
Going forwards, however, “the source of demand growth for durable consumer goods, which was the change in lifestyle during the pandemic, is being exhausted. Production costs are increasing rapidly due to increases in prices of raw materials, including steel, and problems with the continuity of supplies of parts and components,” PIE says in its latest weekly economic report seen by Kallanish.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine only increased tensions in commodity markets and worsened economic growth forecasts for most countries in the world,” it adds.
Earlier in May, Eurofer halved its forecast for EU steel-using sectors’ output to 2% on-year growth in 2022, with domestic appliances to be the biggest drag on growth, with output expected to fall 3.3%.
Adam Smith Germany
