The manufacturing sector in Wales was historically centred on the mining industry, with slate, coal, tinplate and steel being important industries. Today, while traditional industries remain in smaller quantities, manufacturing in Wales is increasingly specialised and diverse, including parts of the automotive, aerospace, medical and technological industries.
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The Penrhyn Quarry is still producing slate, though at a much reduced capacity from its heyday at the end of the 19th century. In 1995, it accounted for almost 50% of UK production. [1] [ full citation needed ] It is currently owned and operated by Welsh Slate Ltd (part of the Breedon Group ). [2] It was previously owned by the Lagan Group, which also owned and carried out some operations at the Oakeley quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Pen yr Orsedd quarry in the Nantlle Vale, and the Cwt-y-Bugail quarry. [3] In March 2010 the company announced its decision to mothball the Oakeley quarry because of subsidence at the site. [4] [5]
The Greaves Welsh Slate Company produces roofing slates and other slate products from Llechwedd, and work also continues at the Berwyn Quarry near Llangollen.[ citation needed ] The final large-scale underground working to close was Maenofferen, associated with the Llechwedd tourist mine, in 1999: part of this site, now effectively amalgamated with Votty / Bowydd, is still worked by untopping.[ citation needed ] The Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff uses waste slate in many different colours in its design: purple slate from Penrhyn, blue from Cwt-y-Bugail, green from Nantlle, grey from Llechwedd, and black from Corris.[ citation needed ]
Today, Aberpergwm is the only producer of high-grade anthracite in Western Europe, creating a high-carbon coal which creates a clean burn with low emissions, low sulphur, and high efficiency. Although some product is still transported to Port Talbot Steelworks, now most of the output is finely crushed to produce a carbon product suitable for use in carbon filtering. [6]
Metal ore refining is a long established industry in Wales. As of 2007,[ needs update ] Corus had manufacturing facilities at Port Talbot, Llanwern, Newport, Trostre, Shotton, Ammanford, Pontardulais, Tafarnaubach and Caerphilly, although only the Port Talbot Steelworks remains as a major integrated steelmaking plant. [7]
The Indian steelmaker, TATA steel employs almost 7,000 across six steel working sites in Wales. The largest site Port Talbot which employs 4,000 workers, then Llanwern with over 1,000 workers followed by Shotton in Flintshire with 700. Around 650 workers are employed at Trostre, in Llanelli. Sites also exist at Newport and Caerphilly. [8]
Pro Steel Engineering is a steel specialist company based in Wales operating internationally. The company has delivered high-profile work, including collaborative projects such as the London Olympic Stadium Transformation and ICC Wales’ 22 tonne steel Welsh dragon. [9]
Nearly all the tinplate and much of the aluminium produced in the UK are made in Welsh plants. [10]
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JCB has a factory and shop in Wrexham which recently recruited 20 new workers. [11]
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Milford Haven now has only one remaining oil refinery: [12]
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FSG Tool & Die is largest, privately-owned design and build toolmaking company in Europe and is based in Llantrisant business park, Mid Glamorgan. [13]
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The St Athans Aston Martin plant in South Wales has recently created 750 new jobs. It had a series of recruitment events in South Wales that gained over 3,000 applications. The first technicians have been recruited to working on the new DB11 at Aston Martin's Gaydon Headquarters, training for the highly-skilled jobs to work in St Athan. [14]
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The current Airbus Broughton (Flintshire) site was founded in 1939 as a shadow factory for the production of the Vickers Wellington and the Avro Lancaster. After the War De Havilland took over the factory and it was used to produce various aircraft, including the Mosquito and the Comet. [15]
Airbus Broughton produces the wing assembly for all Airbus aircraft, with the exception of the Chinese A320s and the A400M. Airbus wings are transported by Airbus Beluga or ship (in the case of the A380) to the final assembly lines at Airbus Toulouse. [16]
General Electric (GE) on Caerphilly Road, Nantgarw in Wales handles the world’s largest and most fuel efficient aviation engine, GE9X. [17]
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TIMET has a plant in Waunarlwydd, Swansea, which is one of the world's major suppliers of titanium for jet engine blades and medical applications. [18]
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Creo Medical, based in Chepstow, is an emerging Medical Technology company is developing medical technologies with the aim of substantially benefiting the medical community and vastly improving the outcomes of a range of medical procedures. [19]
RotoMedical has emerged as a leading Welsh manufacturer of PPE and medical equipment. The company produces specifically industrial gauges, ultrasonic level transmitters, temperature probes and pressure measurement equipment. [20]
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During the 1980s and 1990s, a major growth sector in manufacturing was the electronics industry with over 130 North American and 35 Japanese companies establishing operations in Wales. [10]
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The Safety Letterbox Company Ltd is a Parcelbox manufacturer that supplies over 180 models throughout the UK and worldwide which was started and is based in Neath. The company employs 62 people. [21]
As of 2013 there were just nine commercial woollen mills still in operation, often run by small families producing traditional Welsh cloth on old looms. Although demand for their products is high, there are few apprentices entering the industry. [22] The Cambrian Woollen Mill at Dre-fach Felindre was acquired by the state in 1976 for the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry, now named the National Wool Museum. [23] Water powered woollen mills that were open to the public as of 2016 include Melin Tregwynt, Rock Mill Llandysul, Solva Woollen Mill and Trefriw Woollen Mills. [24]
Excluding intra UK trade, the European Union and the United States constitute the largest markets for Wales's exports. Recently, with the high rates of growth in many emerging economies of southeast Asia and the Middle East such as China, UAE and Singapore, there has been a drive towards marketing Welsh products and manufactured goods in these countries, with China and Qatar entering the top ten destinations for Welsh exports in 2013. [25]
The total value of international exports from Wales in 2015 was estimated at £12.2 billion (2014: £13.4 billion). The top five exporting industries in 2013 were power generating machinery £4.0 billion (2013: £4.2 billion), petroleum, petroleum products & related materials £2.6 billion (2013: £3.8 billion), Iron & Steel £1.288 billion (2013: £1.3 billion), electric machinery £0.69 billion (2013: £0.7 billion), and professional and scientific services £0.346 billion (2013: £0.353 billion). [26]
| Destination | Value | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Germany |  £3.21 billion | ||||||
 France | £2.73 billion | ||||||
 United States | £2.29 billion | ||||||
 Ireland | £1.04 billion | ||||||
 Netherlands | £0.69 billion | ||||||
 UAE | £0.56 billion | ||||||
 Spain | £0.47 billion | ||||||
 Belgium |  £0.46 billion | ||||||
 Canada | £0.36 billion | ||||||
 Turkey | £0.35 billion | ||||||
| Source: Welsh exports: Fourth quarter 2015 [27] | |||||||
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,000 at the peak development of the slate industry, but fell with the decline in demand for slate. The population of the community, including the nearby village Llan Ffestiniog, was 4,875 in the 2011 census: the fourth most populous in Gwynedd after Bangor, Caernarfon and Llandeiniolen. The population not including Llan is now only about 4,000.
Rhondda Cynon Taf is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and villages away from the valleys.
POSCO is a South Korean steel-making company headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. It had an output of 42,000,000 metric tons of crude steel in 2015, making it the world's sixth-largest steelmaker by this measure. In 2010, it was the world's largest steel manufacturing company by market value. Also, in 2012, it was named as the world's 146th-largest corporation by the Fortune Global 500.
Tata Steel Europe Ltd. was a steelmaking company headquartered in London, England, with its main operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The company was created in 2007, when Tata Group took over the British-Dutch Corus Group.
The economy of Wales is part of the wider economy of the United Kingdom, and encompasses the production and consumption of goods, services and the supply of money in Wales.
The slate industry is the industry related to the extraction and processing of slate. Slate is either quarried from a slate quarry or reached by tunneling in a slate mine. Common uses for slate include as a roofing material, a flooring material, gravestones and memorial tablets, and electrical insulation.
Llechwedd is a visitor attraction near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales. It details the history of slate quarrying in the town and specifically the Llechwedd quarry in which it is located. The main aspect of Llechwedd is its Llechwedd Deep Mine Tour which has the steepest narrow gauge railway in the UK and travels over 500 feet underground to the disused slate caverns, and the Quarry Explorer Tour which heads out to the furthest reaches of the Llechwedd site to explore the history of mining in the area.
The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then rapidly during the Industrial Revolution in Wales until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in northwest Wales. These sites included the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, the Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis, the Nantlle Valley quarries, and Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was mined rather than quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is also produced as thicker slab for a variety of uses including flooring, worktops and headstones.
The Rhiwbach Tramway was a Welsh industrial, 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge railway connecting the remote slate quarries east of Blaenau Ffestiniog with the Ffestiniog Railway. It was in use by 1862, and remained so until progressively closed between 1956 and 1976. The route included three inclines, one of which became the last operational gravity incline in the North Wales slate industry. The tramway was worked by horses and gravity for much of its existence, but a diesel locomotive was used to haul wagons on the top section between 1953 and its closure in 1961.
Llechwedd quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. At its peak in 1884 it produced 23,788 tons of finished slate per year and had 513 employees. It continues to produce slate on a limited scale and is the location of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns tourist attraction.
Maenofferen quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales and one of the major users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It continues to produce crushed slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry.
Manufacturing in Australia peaked in the 1960s at 25% of the country's gross domestic product, and has since dropped below 10%. At one stage manufacturing employed almost a third of Australia's workforce. Automotive manufacturing in Australia began in the 1920s and came to an end in 2017.
Rhiwbach quarry was a slate quarry located to the east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. The quarry was a remote site; it was nearly 4 miles (6.4 km) to north-east of Duffws, the Festiniog Railway's terminus in Blaenau Ffestiniog. It was the connected to the Ffestiniog Railway by the Rhiwbach Tramway. Commercial operation began around 1812, and it finally closed in 1952. It was the last Welsh slate quarry where workers lived in barracks on the site. 'Rhiwbach' is Welsh for 'Little Hill'.
Votty & Bowydd quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales. It was one of the major users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It opened in 1870 In the quarry's peak years around 1900, the quarry produced around 17,000 tons-per-annum of slate, employing 500 men. It continues to produce crushed slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry.
The woollen industry in Wales was at times the country's most important industry, though it often struggled to compete with the better-funded woollen mills in the north of England, and almost disappeared during the 20th century. There is continued demand for quality Welsh woollen products.
The Cambrian Mills was a complex of woollen mill buildings in Newtown, Powys, Wales, that operated from 1856 to 1912, when they were destroyed by fire. At one time the mill complex was the largest woollen daddy in Wales. The mills owed their success to the pioneering mail order business of the local Newtown draper Pryce Pryce-Jones. In the longer term they were unable to compete with woollen mills in northern England due to the cost of importing coal to power the machinery and the lack of rail links to their natural market in the south of Wales.
Minllyn quarry was a slate quarry near Dinas Mawddwy in Wales that opened before 1793 and continued working intermittently until 1925. The quarry is located on the western flank of Foel Dinas.
Bwlch y Slaters quarry is a slate quarry near Blaenau Ffestiniog, in Gwynedd, North Wales.
The development of the Welsh economy since the 18th century has largely been concentrated on the mining industry during the Industrial revolution in Wales, with the economy largely dependent on agriculture in centuries prior. The Welsh slate industry once was the world's largest, and Wales' significant coalfields led to the industry transforming many parts of Wales. Wales experienced de-industrialisation in the late 20th century, becoming more of a service economy to the present day.
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