Industry overview
The Mining of metal ores sector across EU27 average comprises approximately 340 enterprises employing about 52,029 people and generating €12.5 bn in net turnover in 2020. The average enterprise size is – employees per firm. This is a useful yardstick when assessing whether your own operation sits within the typical scale band of the sector.
Profitability
With a robust operating margin of 33.6% of revenue in 2020, the sector reports €4.2 bn of gross operating surplus (Eurostat's EBITDA-equivalent, before depreciation). This figure provides the headline benchmark against which an individual operator can sanity-check their own bottom line, values significantly below indicate cost or pricing pressure, those above suggest competitive advantage worth defending.
Cost structure
The Mining of metal ores cost mix is reasonably balanced: cost of revenue at 59.7%, personnel at 17.3% and energy at – of turnover. Without a single dominant cost driver, margin management requires attention across the full operating envelope rather than focus on any one line.