Between April and June 2020, machinery exports fell by 22.9% year-on-year to 35.2 billion euros. In the first quarter, exports were still five percent below the previous year's figure, with a cumulative drop in exports of 14.1 percent for the first six months. April and May proved to be particularly weak months - due to the far-reaching measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Here, exports fell short of the previous year's figure by around 28%. In June, they fell less drastically due to the lifting of travel and transport restrictions, but still fell by 12% compared to the previous year.

"Companies have recently been able to breathe a little easier in the export business. But it will still be a bumpy road back to normality. This is because in order for export business to normalize, many mechanical engineering customer countries must first get a better grip on the consequences of the pandemic and develop more confidence for new investments," says VDMA Chief Economist Dr. Ralph Wiechers. Nevertheless, a comparison of the export figures from the corona crisis with the figures from the 2008/2009 financial and economic crisis shows that the decline was not more drastic, at least in the first half of the year. "In the first six months of 2009, machinery exports from Germany fell by just under 23%," explains Wiechers.

Russia with export growth in the first half of the year
In the second quarter of this year, machinery exports from Germany to the EU-27 were 27.7% below the previous year's level. As expected, export business with countries hit hard by the coronavirus, such as France (down 28.2%), Italy (down 31%), Spain (down 32.1%) and the UK (down 36.4%), was particularly poor during this period. Cumulatively, exports to the EU-27 partner countries fell by 17.3% in the first six months of this year.

In the same period, 11.3% fewer machines were delivered to the rest of Europe. Russia stands out in particular, as it was the only top customer country to record an increase in exports of 4.5% in the first half of the year. "The increase is largely due to major orders for the Russian process industry, which were realized in June," explains Wiechers. "This latest growth trend in machinery exports from Germany to Russia is unlikely to continue." Nevertheless, Russia has now moved back up to ninth place among the most important customer countries for machinery exporters from Germany, displacing Switzerland to tenth place.

China could once again become the most important single market
Export trends to the two most important individual markets, the USA and China, differ significantly. In the second quarter, machinery exporters from Germany delivered 23% less to the United States than a year ago. By contrast, business in China only fell by 7.9% between April and June. China is therefore on its way to catching up with the USA in the ranking of the most important individual markets. "In the People's Republic, we are seeing an extremely robust economic recovery, especially in industry. This in turn is benefiting a number of mechanical engineering sectors, which are recording significant growth in exports to the People's Republic. These include machine and component manufacturers for the construction and infrastructure industries as well as the electronics sector," analyzes VDMA Chief Economist Wiechers. as