Despite that at the beginning of the year, the metal sector in Spain foresaw a rebound in job positions, the Middle East scenario has changed everything in just two months.
This is collected by the latest Confemetal Barometer -in the 16th Economic Sentiment Survey of the Metal Sector by Confemetal, to which Demócrata has had access-, where the sector warns that the effects derived from this conflict are negatively impacting its activity and already perceives a significant increase in operating costs.
The report, published by the umbrella organization of the metal sector in Spain, gathers the member territorial and sectoral associations, on the perception of the evolution of invoicing, exports, employment, and energy, transport and raw material costs.
The aforementioned document confirms how the activity of the metal sector in Spain has strongly slowed down at the beginning of 2026. So much so that, the invoicing indicator falls to 45 points in the first quarter and could fall even further in the second (40 points), which reflects a direct impact of global conflicts on the sector's sales.
The impact of the conflict
The metal labor market in Spain also notes the impact of the global context. The employment indicator is another of the sector's quality gauges that drops to 47.5 points in the first quarter, thus evidencing a slight contraction. However, companies expect to return to stability in the second quarter (50 points), thus underlining the regularity of this indicator.
For its part, all cost indicators in the metal sector in Spain widely exceed stability levels. Energy and transport are experiencing a particularly intense increase (75), with a forecast of a new surge in the second quarter (82.5).
For its part, raw materials registered one of the largest increases of the entire series, with 82.5 points in the first quarter and a projection of 87.5 for the next period. This structural price increase -Confemetal points out- pressures margins and limits the investment capacity of the sector.
Regulation and monetary policy in the metal sector in Spain
The metal ecosystem in Spain indicates that the future evolution of the sector will largely depend on external factors, such as the duration of the open conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as internal elements linked to possible modifications to the regulatory framework, already perceived as excessive and demanding for companies in the sector.
Likewise, the report highlights the relevance that monetary policies will have both in the euro zone and in the United States, whose orientation will condition interest rates for more leveraged companies, as well as exchange rates in those cases where there is currency exposure, in turn conditioning projects and investments in the metal sector in Spain.
The report also details the results obtained from a survey, with the aim of reflecting the sentiment of organizations and companies in the sector regarding economic activity (turnover, employment, exports, costs). At this point, it considers a scale of five possible response levels: significant decrease, slight decrease, stability, slight increase and significant increase, measured on a range from 0 to 100, with 50 being the equilibrium point.
The Government puts at risk 200 million euros
In the month of March, the Regional Confederation of Metal and New Technologies Companies of Canarias (CREM), integrated by Femete and Femepa -as Demócrata already reported-, was launching an urgent warning given the lack of response from the Government of Spain regarding the extension of deadlines for the Next Generation funds linked to the energy transition in Canarias.
On that occasion, the business organization warned that the inaction of the central Executive could lead to the loss of more than 200 million euros in already assigned European funds, the paralysis of hundreds of projects underway and a direct impact on hundreds of jobs in the islands. “We are not -the CREM pointed out then- facing a technical problem, but a lack of political decision that could have irreversible economic consequences for Canarias”.
About Confemetal
The Spanish Confederation of Metal Business Organizations, Confemetal, is the top business organization of the metal sector in Spain. Confemetal groups 77 associations from the metal industry, trade, and services, representing a number close to 220,000 companies and employing one and a half million salaried workers and 320,000 self-employed individuals, both at a territorial level, with 42 provincial associations, and at a sectoral level, with 35 sectoral associations representative of the various branches of activity.