Exports stagnate recently

In the first two months of this year, aggregated industry deliveries abroad thus totalled EUR 40.9 billion - a slight decrease of 0.8% compared to the same period in 2024. "Compared to the much sharper decline in exports last year, the export business has thus stabilized recently, although this could only be a snapshot in time given the zigzag course of US tariffs in particular since the beginning of April at the latest," says ZVEI Chief Economist Dr. Andreas Gontermann.

Imports of electrical and electronic products to Germany increased by 2.3% year-on-year to 20.0 billion euros in February. Accumulated electrical and electronic imports from January to February amounted to 43.5 billion euros - an increase of 3.9% compared to the previous year. "The industry-wide trade balance of exports and imports was therefore a good two and a half billion euros in the red in the first two months," says Gontermann.

Exports by the German electrical and digital industry to the eurozone amounted to €6.1 billion in February. This was 1.0% below the previous year's figure. Taken together for the first two months of this year, industry deliveries to the eurozone totaled 13.7 billion euros, which corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 2.4%.

Electrical and electronic exports to countries outside the eurozone totaled €13.4 billion in February 2025. This represents a moderate increase of 0.9% compared to the same month last year. Business with the USA increased by 1.8% to 2.2 billion euros in February. "The US government's tariff measures are unlikely to have played a major role here for the time being," says Gontermann. Exports to China (-17.3% to €1.8 billion) and South Korea (-20.5% to €253 million) fell particularly sharply. "Deliveries to the People's Republic were down at a double-digit rate for the fourth month in a row," says Gontermann.

In the overall period from January to February 2025, exports to third countries stagnated compared to the same period of the previous year (- 0.1% to € 27.2 billion).