Corona crisis
VDMA: Incoming orders fall by 9 percent
According to the German Engineering Federation, orders fell by nine percent in March, although the decline in the first quarter was only two percent.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the mechanical engineering sector at the end of the first quarter: in March 2020, incoming orders fell nine percent short of the previous year's level in real terms. Domestic orders fell by two percent. The drop in foreign orders was more pronounced at twelve percent. "This suggests that the spread of the pandemic is making itself felt here, first in China and then later in Europe," explains VDMA Chief Economist Dr. Ralph Wiechers. "However, the full impact of the crisis in the mechanical engineering sector will only become apparent in the following reporting months."
Orders from the eurozone fell by 14% in March, while orders from non-euro countries were down by 11%. Several VDMA surveys among its member companies have shown that difficulties in the supply chains are a constant burden for around half of the companies. In contrast, problems on the demand side, i.e. customer orders, have increased significantly, with three out of four mechanical engineering companies surveyed now reporting this.
In contrast, the entire first quarter of 2020 only saw a decline in orders of two percent in real terms in the mechanical engineering sector, with domestic orders even increasing by one percent in this period, while foreign orders fell by four percent compared to the previous year. "At the beginning of the year, we were still hopeful that the year would be better, as the early indicators had suggested. Then the pandemic got in the way," says Wiechers. Orders from euro countries were down five percent in the first three months, while incoming orders from non-euro countries fell by three percent.
Last year, the mechanical engineering sector in Germany had already recorded an overall drop in orders of nine percent compared to the previous year. Turnover in the sector fell by 2.8% in real terms to 228.7 billion euros in 2019, while production declined by a nominal 0.5% to 224 billion euros. as
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