According to the ZVEI, incoming orders in the German electrical and electronics industry in June 2019 were just at the previous year's level (- 0.2%). "Only large orders from outside the eurozone prevented a much sharper decline," said ZVEI Chief Economist Dr. Andreas Gontermann. While domestic orders fell by 8.7 percent in June, foreign orders rose by 6.2 percent. Customers from the eurozone ordered 12.4% less than in the previous year, while customers from third countries ordered 17.1% more.

In the first half of 2019, incoming orders fell by 1.6% compared to the previous year. Domestic orders fell by 0.9% and foreign orders by 2.1%. Orders from the eurozone fell by 3.1% and those from third countries by 1.5%.

In June, the price-adjusted production of German electrical and electronics companies fell significantly short of the previous year's figure at minus 13.5% - however, June 2019 also included three fewer working days than 2018. This results in a 3.9% decline in production for the first half of 2019. "Given the ever-increasing uncertainty about the economic trend, particularly in light of the recent massive escalation in the trade dispute between the US and China and the growing risk of a no-deal Brexit, it will be very difficult to actually achieve our production forecast of plus 1%," says Dr. Gontermann.

Capacity utilization in the industry fell by 1.5 percentage points at the start of the third quarter of 2019 to 84.2% of the usual full capacity. At the same time, the range of order backlogs fell from 3.4 to 3.1 months of production.

The nominal turnover of German electrical and electronics companies fell by 11.1% to €14.0 billion in June. Domestic and foreign sales fell almost equally by 11.3% to EUR 6.6 billion and 10.9% to EUR 7.4 billion respectively. Business with the eurozone fell by 5.7% to 2.9 billion euros, while business with third countries dropped by 13.9% to 4.5 billion euros.

For the first time since October 2014, the business climate in the German electrical and electronics industry fell below the zero line in July.

© ZVEI

Between January and June, industry revenue amounted to €109.8 billion. This roughly corresponds to the previous year's level (- 0.7%). Here too, domestic (- 0.7% to €51.5 billion) and foreign sales (- 0.5% to €58.3 billion) developed similarly. While sales with customers from the eurozone increased by 1.6% to €21.8 billion in the first half of the year, sales from business with third countries fell by 1.8% to €36.5 billion.

In July, the business climate in the German electrical and electronics industry fell below the zero line for the first time since October 2014. The current situation was assessed as significantly worse than in June, but general business expectations also fell slightly.