VDMA2017 will be a year of growth
Carl Martin Welcker announced a real production increase of 1% at the VDMA's economic press conference. The association president thus confirmed the forecast for the mechanical and plant engineering sector for this year.
Europe proved to be the most important pillar of German machinery exports. Exports to the EU grew by 4.1% and those to the eurozone by 5.3% . The EU thus accounted for almost half (46.5%) of the machinery exported by Germany. By contrast, sales on the major overseas markets were less pleasing: German machinery deliveries to the USA, the most important single market, fell by 2.9% to 16.3 billion euros. China accounted for 9.3% less equipment sales. There were particularly significant setbacks in commodity price-dependent countries such as Brazil and Saudi Arabia.