Above-average incoming orders from abroad at the end of last year have saved the annual balance sheet of the East German mechanical and plant engineering industry. The industry association VDMA announced in Leipzig on Friday that orders for the year as a whole were up seven percent in real terms compared to the previous year after deducting inflation. Accordingly, customers ordered a total of 95 percent more machines, systems, components and services in December than in the same month last year, adjusted for price.
According to the association, the orders came primarily from abroad and were received in various sub-sectors - such as drive technology, packaging and machine tool construction as well as conveyor technology. However, an economic recovery is not in sight. For data protection reasons, the association did not disclose which orders explicitly contributed to the positive development of the annual balance sheet. However, it did confirm that orders from abroad increased by 136 percent. In contrast, demand within Germany remained weak (minus nine percent), as it has been recently.
"An increase in orders of this magnitude is not an everyday occurrence," said Oliver Köhn, Managing Director of the Association for Eastern Europe. He regrets that the entire eastern German industry was unable to benefit from the large number of incoming orders from abroad. Only a few companies were able to land large orders. Mechanical engineering companies were the main beneficiaries. They received 14 percent more orders from abroad than a year ago. However, domestic orders fell significantly (minus 15 percent).
According to the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), many companies are generally reporting a difficult order situation. The reasons for this are manifold. Köhn primarily blamed the weak global economy, geopolitical trouble spots, Germany's budget crisis in recent months and the "zigzag course of the German government" for the uncertain situation.
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