Poland - Industry

Leading industries in 2002 included food processing, fuel, metals and metal products, chemicals, coal mining, glass, shipbuilding, and textiles. Industrial production increased by 14.5% annually during 1971–75, but in the late 1970s, the growth rate began to fall. During the 1980s, it grew at an annual rate of 1.1%. With the destabilizing effects of the dissolution of the Soviet bloc and central planning, industrial production initially fell by 26% in 1990 before returning to positive growth between 1991–98. In 2000, the leading industrial performers were oil products and derivatives, the automotive industry, and the wood and wood products sector. In 2001, however, Poland produced 387,058 automobiles, a 23% decrease from 2000. In 2000, Poland produced 3,150 heavy trucks.

Poland produced 10 million tons of steel per year in the mid-1990s. Sulfur is another important industrial commodity; production totaled 1,901 tons per year. The cement industry turned out 12.3 million tons during the same period. All these totals were lower than in the 1980s, however. Light industries were long relegated to a secondary position but, since the 1970s, Poland has increased its production of durable household articles and other consumer goods. In the mid-1990s, Poland produced 401,000 automatic washing machines, 584,000 refrigerators and freezers, 841,000 television sets, 307,000 radios, and 21,000 tape recorders and dictaphones per year.