The nominal decline amounted to 4.6% compared with the previous year, according to latest figures by the Federal Statistics Office. Adjusted for prices, the result was 7.0% below the previous year’s figure. A total of €50 billion ($55 billion) worth of machinery and equipment was exported.
Deliveries to the European Union’s partner countries fell more sharply than to the rest of the world, a trend all the more significant as the EU is by far the most important sales markets, VDMA notes. Still, VDMA believes that the EU economy is now on a moderate recovery path.
“Private consumption is likely to be the driving force behind this recovery. However, the capital goods industry will usually benefit only after a delay of several months,” Kallanish hears form VDMA economist Benedikt Jeske.
Demand from the US, the largest single market for German machinery exporters, was already weakening at the end of last year. However, a double-digit nominal growth of 12.6% was still achieved for 2023 as a whole. In the first quarter of 2024, growth only reached a small nominal increase of 2.1%.
Business in China remains weak for machinery exporters. In the first quarter of 2024, exports from Germany were down 2.1% in nominal terms from the previous year’s result, which was already not very high.
Some large emerging markets such as Mexico, however, are developing well. Machinery exports from Germany to Mexico rose by a nominal 22.9% in the first quarter, having already increased significantly in the previous year, VDMA notes.
Christian Koehl Germany