The impact on employment in 2019 stands at 3,858 jobs, accounting for 1.02% in the region and 4.03% in Gijón. 60.39% of the workforce, 674 employees, are located in Asturias.
Duro Felgueras contribution to the regional GVA in 2019 amounts to 255 million Euros, 1.18% of the GVA in Asturias, and 5.15% for the municipality of Gijón.
The study concludes that, due to its size, impact, technological capacity and human capital, Duro Felguera is a driving force in the regional economy. Its effort in R&D&I is comparable to the regional average of companies that have R&D expenditure and is far higher than the national average in the sector.
Tuesday, 15 September 2020. The Jovellanos Faculty of Commerce, Tourism and Social Sciences at the University of Oviedo presented today in Gijón a Study on the economic impact of Duro Felguera in Asturias, in a ceremony chaired by the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Leví Pérez Carcedo.
The report, which analyses the impact of the company from 2015 to 2019, concludes that the contribution of Duro Felguera to the economy of the Principality of Asturias was higher in 2015, coinciding with the higher volume of sales within the time interval studied, and it bounced back again in 2019. Furthermore, it reflected a very high traction capacity in Asturias in 2015 and 2016, and then fell continuously in 2017 and 2018, before going up again in 2019.
José Francisco Baños Pino, the main researcher of the study and a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Oviedo, said that “seeing the company’s evolution over the last few years and how it finished 2019, it has enormous potential to continue growing and providing added value in all senses to the Principality of Asturias. The growth that it was already beginning to experience can be boosted by the new business areas in which it is investing and which are some of the sectors with the greatest international projection”.
All in all, the results obtained in this study show that the goal of achieving higher sales levels is not only desirable for Duro Felguera, but also for the Asturian economy as a whole, given the relevant contribution made by the company through the different types of economic impact.
Economic impact of the company in the region
The report highlights that, although all these contributions from Duro Felguera to the regional economy suffered a significant deterioration in 2017 and 2018, in 2019 there was a moderate increase with respect to the previous year, which leads to quantifying the contribution of Duro Felguera to the regional GVA at 255 million Euros, which accounts for 1.18% of the GVA of Asturias.
Taking the year 2015 as a reference, it can be seen that over 80% of the total impact in terms of Gross Added Value (GVA) is concentrated in six branches of activity: Construction, which accounts for 47%; Professional, scientific and administrative activities (16%); Metal processing industry (6.3%); Trade (5.7%); Information, communications and financial services (4.7%); and Metallurgy and metal products (4.4%).
Impact on employment
The increase in 2019 over previous years also had an impact on employment, with 3,858 direct and induced jobs, accounting for 1.02% in the region and 4.03% for Gijón.
Currently, the company has 1,116 employees, 1,035 of whom are Spanish (92.75%) while the rest are local, from the countries in which Duro Felguera operates. 60.39% of the staff, 674 employees, are located in Asturias.. Of the 1,116 employees, 926 work in the areas of production (699) and technical management (227).
43.72% of the workforce, 488 employees, have university degrees, 334 of whom are engineers or technical engineers. The workforce is therefore highly qualified, experienced and in ongoing training.
In terms of the sectoral breakdown of the effects on employment, these same six branches of activity also stand out in Duro Felguera, although with different proportions: Construction (40.5%), Trade (11.9%), Professional, scientific and administrative activities (11.7), Metallurgy and metal products (6.2%) and the metal processing industry (5.7%).
Driving force of innovation in Asturias
The report confirms the importance of The report confirms the importance of Duro Felguera as a driving force for innovation in the region, with an investment of 58 million Euros since 2010, through its collaboration with the main Asturian innovation entities such as IDONIAL, ITMA, the Regional Hydrogen Bureau and the University of Oviedo itself, among others. Of the 58 million Euros that the company has invested in R&D between 2010 and 2019, 32.46 million corresponds to internal R&D activities.
Duro Felguera’s R&D expenditure accounts for a significant part of the internal R&D expenditure made by companies in Asturias between 2010 and 2018 – 3.77% – its contribution was particularly significant in the period 2010-2014, in which the companys R&D expenditure accounted for 5.4% of the internal R&D expenditure by companies in Asturias and 11.68% of the internal R&D expenditure by companies with 250 or more employees in Asturias.
The company’s commitment to innovation, as the report points out, is also seen in investment in the company’s human capital. Duro Felguera is a company that right from its origins, has trained and cared for its human capital as one of its most valuable assets; investment in training was more than 300,000 Euros in 2019, representing almost 10,000 hours of training.
Methodology
This report presents the main results deriving from applying the Input-Output model to calculate the economic impact of the company Duro Felguera S.A. and its subsidiaries in Asturias. More specifically, the Gross Value Added (GVA) and the employment generated by Duro Felguera in the different regional branches of activity has been estimated. The reference years analysed cover the period 2015 to 2019.
The methodology used consists of applying the Input-Output analysis to the sales and investment in Asturias of Duro Felguera S.A. to estimate the economic impact on the regional economy. By economic impact we understand the effects on Gross Added Value (GVA) and employment associated with the activity of Duro Felguera S.A. in Asturias.
This methodology makes it possible to evaluate the different levels of effects: direct, indirect and induced, as well as their sectoral breakdown by branches of activity.
The direct effects correspond to the production, gross added value and employment generated in those sectors that are direct recipients of the sales and investment of Duro Felguera S.A. and its subsidiary companies.
The indirect effects are those associated with production and employment generated in the sectors that benefit indirectly from said investment and expenditure, i.e. those that supply Duro Felguera S.A. with the goods and services necessary for its activity.
In turn, the induced effects are a consequence of the consumption of goods and services by households, produced from the increase in their available income due to the direct and indirect effects of the company’s activities.
Finally, once the direct, indirect and induced effects have been calculated, the total economic impact is obtained by aggregating them.