VDMA
Production in mechanical engineering stagnates
VDMA Vice President Carl Martin Welcker confirmed his association's forecast that the mechanical engineering industry in Germany is only expecting real production to stagnate this year - as was the case last year.
In 2015, the production volume of German mechanical engineering companies reached around 201 billion euros, with a sales volume of around 218 billion euros. "Demand for machinery was not really running smoothly," explained VDMA Vice PresidentCarl Martin Welcker at the association's business press conference in Hanover on the first day of the trade fair. 30% of the mechanical engineering companies surveyed by the Ifo Institute as part of the economic test complained about a lack of orders last year: "Capacity utilization was 84.3% on average - in other words, rather below average," Welcker specified.
Exports in 2015 slightly exceeded the previous year's level by 0.9% on a price-adjusted basis. Excluding price adjustments, the increase amounted to 2.6%. According to the VDMA, exports to the USA developed particularly well, whereby the growth of a good 11% was also due to exchange rates; in 2015, the euro weakened noticeably against the dollar compared to 2014.
Deliveries to India also increased by 15%. Exports to China, on the other hand, fell 6% short of the previous year's level, and the association expects a further slight decline in 2016. In addition, mechanical engineering companies had to cope with declining export results, particularly in the raw material producing countries.
As in the previous year, VDMA economists expect real production to stagnate in the current year. This forecast is exactly in line with the average expected global turnover in machinery.
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