German fabricators begin 2023 on pessimistic note

Germany’s steel and metals fabricating companies have expressed concern over order activity towards the end of the year 2022, and will carry their reservation into the new year.

Order intake in the third quarter for upcoming deliveries was 5% below the preceding quarter, according to association Wirtschaftsverband Stahl- und Metallverarbeitung (WSM). While this appears logical at first sight in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, the quarter-on-quarter drop in production was only 0.7%. This implies that the full impact of the war, and other negative factors, was yet to arrive. “The figures do not give reason to expect a promising last note to the year,” economist Holger Ade said in WSM’s latest statement on the matter.

In a year-on-year comparison, production in Q3 was actually 1% up on the corresponding 2021 period, which, however, had been particularly weak due to the semiconductor shortage. And, in fact, order intake was down a considerable 7% y-on-y, Kallanish learns from WSM. It therefore anticipates that the final figures for 2022 will show another drop of business, as they did already in 2021. “The lining on the horizon is not silver, and it is even greyer than it was in 2021,” the federation says in its statement.

Christian Koehl Germany