VDMA Mechanical Engineering Defends Number of New Orders

In November 2018, the German mechanical and plant engineering industry was able to maintain its order intake at the previous year's level.

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A slight increase in foreign orders of 2 % was offset by an equally low decline in domestic orders of 3 %, announced the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) in Frankfurt am Main. "Apparently companies are finding it increasingly difficult to top the already high order intake levels of the previous year", says VDMA Chief Economist Dr. Ralph Wiechers. Orders from the Eurozone increased by 1 % in November, orders from non-euro countries rose by 3 %,

In a three-month comparison from September to November 2018, orders were up 4 % year-on-year in real terms. Both domestic and foreign orders increased by 4 %, with orders from the Eurozone growing by 3 % and orders from non-euro countries by 4 %.

Of the individual sectors, the process industries stand out, i.e. mining machinery, process technology or thermon process technology, as Wiechers further explains in an interview with our affiliate portal MM Maschinenmarkt. "Some companies in these sectors experienced difficult years. This is changing now, albeit starting at a low level," he says.

On the other hand, textile machinery suffered a significant decline in orders. "In the last three months they have performed significantly poorer than other sectors and also compared to the first half of the year," reports the VDMA chief economist. Fluid technology has also declined in recent months, with Wiechers assuming a base effect to be the cause.

This article was first published by MM MaschinenMarkt.

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