Metallurgy and Metalworking
The metalworking sector has very particular features, as a large part of the activities comprising it produce support goods for the production of other sectors - intermediate goods and capital goods and/or durable goods for final consumption.
Due to its nature, the sector occupies a central position in the economic growth of modern economies, given its role in the development and diffusion of new technologies and innovation.
This diversity of products, services and skills, together with the leverage effect with the primary and tertiary sectors of the economy, places the sector in a central position in the Portuguese industrial economy, and it is actually its top exporter.
Given the high number of metallurgical and electromechanical companies located in Santa Maria da Feira and its transversal character, this sector is of extreme importance for the local economy, playing a key role for other sectors, in the supply of a great diversity of intermediate or final products for other areas of activity, such as construction, production of machinery and equipment or components for the automotive industry.