What are the UK’s Top Exports?

by Simon Hopes Author

The United Kingdom is the world’s 10^th largest export economy. In 2017, the UK shipped around $445 billion worth of goods worldwide.

What are the United Kingdom’s top exports?

Mechanical Machinery

Machinery, which includes computers, was on top of the list of the UK’s exports. It’s one of the biggest and most competitive fields out there. It comes up to around $68 billion or 15.3% of total exports.

Machinery has a huge impact on people. Aside from providing vital and sophisticated technologies, mechanical machinery is often found in well-compensated professions in the manufacturing and service industries.

Mechanical equipment is known as an export-intense field. Some may view it as an “old” industry, but it actually has evolved and adapted with the times.

Cars and other Vehicles

Cars are one of UK’s top export products. The United Kingdom is even home to around 30 production facilities that manufacture engines and whole vehicles. This industry has employed over 814,000 people.

Among all the cars made in the UK, roughly 77% were exported. In a single day, around 5100 cars and 5700 engines are exported worldwide. And so, the amount of cars’ exports has reached $42 billion in 2017.

Top car manufacturers include Nissan, Mini, and Honda, with most cars made being exported to other countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Gems and Precious Metals

The United Kingdom is also a top exporter of various precious metals. Its export sales increased due to the sales of gold, diamonds, and platinum out of the country.

The UK has ranked 5^th in the global list of gold exporters, and the country is believed to become one of the fastest countries that export gold; its export values is believed to have increased up to 580% for the past five years.

Mineral Fuels

Another product that the UK is known to export is mineral fuels. Mineral fuel, which includes oil, was the fastest growing product – this product increased by 38.4% in 2017 because of the sales revenue for refined petroleum oils, crude oil, and petroleum gases.

The UK is also known to be the world’s 15^th biggest exporter of crude petroleum, and this has represented 2% of the exports worldwide.

Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom is also a huge, employing about 73,000 people. You’ll find large pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline in the UK, while other larger companies such as Novartis and Pfizer have their major presence felt in the area.

This industry faces challenges such as competition from producers of more affordable and generic medicines in the emerging markets, plus maintenance of spending on research and development. Still, the UK believes that it has a stable and competitive advantage.

Those are just five of the products that the UK is known to export. And because it’s sending out products to countries even outside the EU, the UK is believed to maintain its presence even after Brexit.

Wish to have this kind of influence too? Reach out to an export consultancy company so they can help you not only with the exports but also with the preparation that comes with it.