Production at German steel and metal fabricators was 1.0% lower last year than in 2024, Kallanish hears from industry federation Wirtschaftsverband Stahl- und Metallverarbeitung (WSM).
The drop in 2025 marks the fourth year of recession in a row, the federation notes. In comparison with the pre-Covid year 2019, the production volume has sunk by as much as 14.6%.
The positive detail WSM highlights is the improved activity in the second half of the year, which saw production in the fourth quarter rise to 2.1% higher than that of the fourth quarter of 2024. Demand has improved, too, though not in all sectors, WSM observes. It points at the segment of arms & ammunition production, where orders have risen five-fold since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to general economy data, the current year could see an uptick of production by 1-2%, WSM says. However, it notes that this is more a resurfacing from a low level after a year-long trough, rather than a change of trend.
It adds that companies have entered the year with a subdued mood. WSM cites sentiment surveys of the business climate, which shows that assessments dropped both for the current conditions as well as for expectations.
The federation speculates that this could at least be partly attributed to the erratic US policy and the resulting insecurity. An indication of this is the drop of the production capacities’ utilisation from 74% in October to 72.4% in January.
