PRODCOM - Classification of Industrial Products

Introduction

The purpose of PRODCOM is to provide information on the supply of industrial products in the EU (plus Norway and Iceland). ‘PRODCOM’ comes from the French ‘PRODuction COMmunautaire’ (Community Production).

The basis of PRODCOM is Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3924/91 on the establishment of a community survey of industrial production (PRODCOM Regulation). In accordance with Article 2(2) of the above-mentioned Regulation, production is to be recorded according to the product headings of the PRODCOM list.

Classification Structure

The PRODCOM classification, or list, describes the production of manufactured goods carried out by enterprises on the national territories of the reporting countries, covering the economic activities of mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and materials recovery, which refer to the sections B, C, and E of the ‘Statistical classification of economic activities in the EU’ (NACE). 

PRODCOM uses an eight-digit product code - XX.XX.XX.XX

PRODCOM data (together with international trade in goods data) monitors the supply of industrial products.

• Industrial products are, according to PRODCOM, products from activities listed in sections B, C and E in the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, NACE (Rev. 2).
• PRODCOM includes several thousand selected products (commodities and industrial services)
• The PRODCOM list details codes of the selected products and their descriptions
• The PRODCOM classification is updated every 2-3 years; versions are available on the Eurostat classifications webpage

Links to other classifications

The PRODCOM classification is organised into product divisions and classes corresponding to the sectoral divisions (2 digit) and classes (4-digit) of NACE Rev. 2.

The first six-digits of PRODCOM codes have full comparability with the codes used in the European Community Classification of Products by Activity (CPA), which is similarly based on NACE. The last two digits of PRODCOM provide a more detailed breakdown of the CPA classes into the various PRODCOM product headings.

There is a direct link between the PRODCOM classification and the EU foreign trade Harmonised System/Combined Nomenclature (HS/CN) classification. Each PRODCOM 8-digit heading covers one or more HS/CN 8-digit headings. The following example shows the link between the two classifications:

The PRODCOM code 10.12.10.10 covers the same products as HS/CN code 0207.11, which is the code in foreign trade statistics under which imports and exports of chickens appear. Thus, for any product a direct link can be made for its production (PRODCOM code) and its imports and exports (HS/CN code) to derive domestic consumption (production plus imports minus exports).  This in turn can be linked to the sector of economic activity because PRODCOM is based on NACE.

Usage

An annual PRODCOM Inquiry is conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This is an annual survey of the value and volume of products produced by industrial enterprises in Ireland and sold during the reference year. Data for this survey is collected under the name of PRODCOM, but is currently published under the title of Irish Industrial Production by Sector.

PRODCOM data for EU member states are available here.