"The automotive industry remains one of the most important customer sectors for the German machine tool industry," says Franz-Xaver Bernhard, Chairman of the VDW. "However, two developments are reflected in the result. On the one hand, it is investing significantly less in machining due to the transformation to electric drives. Secondly, machine tool manufacturers are also diversifying their customer portfolio." In fact, the share of OEMs has more than halved to 10% since 2019, while the share of suppliers has only fallen from 19.9% to 17.2%.

A number of machine tool manufacturers prepared for the transformation early on and are also serving the electromobility market. Wolfram Weber, Member of the Management Board of Grob in Mindelheim and Chairman of the VDW Economic Committee, says on behalf of the company: "We reacted early to the shift towards electric motors and entered the business field back in 2016. Today, we offer comprehensive solutions for drive and energy storage systems, which is reflected in our business figures: As the machining systems also largely produce workpieces for e-mobility, this area accounts for around 60 percent of our output of around EUR 1.8 billion in the 2023/24 financial year."

The most important customer for machine tools, with a share of around 30%, was the mechanical engineering sector and its many sub-sectors for the first time in 2023. Its share has increased by 6 percentage points since 2019. The most important sub-sectors include tool and mold making, the machine tool industry itself, agricultural machinery and components such as hydraulics and pneumatics or drive technology.

In the ranking of the most important customer industries after mechanical engineering and the automotive industry, manufacturers of metal products, aerospace, electrical engineering/electronics and metal production and processing follow. Other important customer industries are precision mechanics, rail vehicle construction, energy technology and medical technology. They have all increased their share. This reflects trends such as digitalization, the energy transition and climate protection, infrastructure modernization and an ageing society.

The German machine tool industry is one of the five largest branches of mechanical engineering. It supplies production technology for metalworking to all branches of industry. Due to its key position in industrial production, its development is an important indicator of the economic dynamics of the entire industry. In 2023, the sector produced machines and services worth around €15.4 billion with an average of around 65,200 employees (companies with more than 50 employees).