The relationship between energy costs and the competitiveness of manufacturing companies has been attracting the interest of researchers and decision-makers for decades. In the early 2010s the issue received renewed attention, mainly due to the increased continental gas price differences resulting from the American shale gas revolution and the Fukushima accident. In Hungary, the utility cost reduction measures launched in 2013 raised concern, as some electricity tariff components formerly paid by households have been shifted to consumers in the competitive market segment. The study analyses the evolution of the "real unit energy cost" (RUEC), measuring energy costs per unit of value added in the manufacturing industry of Hungary and 4 other European countries: Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, over the period of 2009 – 2015, based on Eurostat data. The LMDI decomposition of the real unit energy cost index reveals how the energy cost competitiveness of manufacturing industries in Hungary, Germany and Spain was influenced by the changes in energy price, the energy intensity of production, and the structure of the manufacturing sector.

The study is available at the website of the Economic Review