Production at Germany’s manufacturing industries was up 0.2% month-on-month in June, which follows a 0.7% growth registered in May, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
The quarterly comparison showed that production was 0.7% higher in the period from April to June than in the year’s first quarter. The positive development was primarily attributable to the growth observed in the automotive industry, with a 3.6% gain on the previous month, Kallanish learns.
The increase was also observed in the ‘other transport equipment’ segment, which includes aircraft, ships, trains, military vehicles, which saw an 8.4% growth.
By contrast, the decrease registered in the production of machinery and equipment (3.9%) had a negative impact. However, new orders in the mechanical engineering sector showed a slight upturn, too, according to the sector’s federation VDMA (see Kallanish separate).
This is considered in Destatis’ statistics for order intake in manufacturing industries, which was up 3.1% m-o-m.
In line with VDMA’s clarification, the Statistics Office notes that this leap was caused by several large-scale orders. If these are excluded, new orders were 0.5% lower than in the previous month.
Media commentary has stated that Germany’s industries are proving more resilient than expected amidst an environment of economic stagnation and international crises.
“All in all, German industry has shown surprising resilience. Whether this resilience and the current cyclical rebound can really translate into a structural recovery remains a different story,” a note by ING bank states.
One of the toughest headwinds, particularly during the summer months, are the critical water levels which could throttle industrial logistics to an unprecedented degree. That factor does not yet appear in the figures from Destatis through June.
