"This further significant increase is due not least to a number of large orders," said ZVEI Chief Economist Dr. Andreas Gontermann. Domestic orders increased by 42.0 percent in December, while foreign orders rose by 27.6 percent. Orders from the eurozone were 19.8 percent higher than in the previous year. Customers from third countries increased their orders by 32.0%.

This means that orders for 2021 as a whole are up 23.9%. Incoming orders from Germany grew by a fifth (+20.1%), those from abroad by 27.0%. While customers from the eurozone increased their orders by 23.1% last year, orders from countries outside the single currency area rose by 29.2%.

The price-adjusted production of electrical and electronic goods was up 3.4% year-on-year in December. Overall, it grew by 8.8% last year, more than making up for the 2020 loss (-6%). "The ZVEI is forecasting real production growth of four percent for 2022," says Gontermann.

Sales in the German electrical and digital industry amounted to 18.1 billion euros in December 2021 - an increase of 8.5% compared to the same month last year. Domestic sales rose by 12.6% to 8.7 billion euros and foreign sales by 5.1% to 9.4 billion euros. Business with partners from the eurozone increased only slightly by 1.2% to 3.1 billion euros, while sales with third countries grew by 7.0% to 6.3 billion euros.

For 2021 as a whole, aggregated industry revenue thus recorded an increase of 9.7% and reached a record value of €199.5 billion. Business with foreign customers (+10.5% to €105.7 billion) was twelve billion euros higher than business with domestic partners (+8.9% to €93.8 billion). Last year, 37.7 billion euros were generated with the eurozone - an increase of 8.3%. Sales with customers from third countries amounted to €68.0 billion, 11.7% higher than in 2020.

At 88.5%, capacity utilization in the industry at the start of the first quarter of 2022 was just as high as at the start of the fourth quarter of 2021 (then 88.4%). The order backlog fell slightly from 5.4 to 4.8 (production) months, but remains historically high.

Companies in the electrical and digital industry only slightly increased their production plans in January of this year. "However, supply bottlenecks continue to hamper their implementation," said Gontermann. "While only eight percent of companies recently reported insufficient orders, material shortages and a lack of skilled workers are affecting 88 percent and 41 percent of companies in the sector respectively."

The business climate in the German electrical and digital industry also improved at the start of the year: both the assessment of the current situation and general business expectations were significantly better again in January 2022 than in the previous month. Export expectations were also more positive in January. Here, the balance of companies expecting more or fewer exports in the next three months rose by a full eight points to plus 25 points compared to the previous month.