Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's sales heavyweights in industry are the Wartburg and Ilm districts, the Gotha district and the city of Jena. This is the result of figures published by the State Statistical Office on Thursday. Accordingly, the strongest regions are along the A4 autobahn and the Thuringian Forest autobahn A71.
After three quarters, Thuringia's industry generated sales of 28.2 billion euros. Also due to higher prices, this was 3.5 billion euros more than in the same period of the previous year. The three districts and Thuringia's optics stronghold Jena contributed more than 10 billion euros.
The region with the highest turnover was the Wartburg district with just under 3.3 billion euros by the end of September. The south-west of Thuringia is primarily characterized by the metal and automotive supply industries and by Opel. The district of Gotha, also with a strong vehicle industry, came to more than 2.8 billion euros and the Ilm district with Thuringia's largest commercial area to 2.5 billion euros. Jena's industry earned almost 2.2 billion euros and was also the region with the highest export share at 75 percent. The average export rate for Thuringia's industry was 37.3 percent.
The industrial companies in the Free State are employers for 143,000 people. According to the state office, the number of industrial employees rose by around 2,100 compared to the previous year's average.
