Machine tool industry
Significant increase in domestic orders
In the fourth quarter of 2017, incoming orders in the German machine tool industry rose by 24% compared to the same period of the previous year. Domestic orders increased by 48%. Foreign orders grew by 13%. The overall increase for 2017 was 8%. Domestic orders climbed by 10%, while orders from abroad increased by 7%. The euro countries were the driving force here.
"The second half of the year brought the breakthrough in Germany," comments Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association). "While domestic orders were still in double-digit decline in the first half of the year, German industry lost its reticence in the second half of the year and invested massively," he continues. After EMO Hannover 2017 in September in particular, orders shot up: up 41% in October, up 67% in November and up 37% in December.
Global economy as a driving force
The fireworks of orders can be explained not least by the good global economic situation. All around the globe, the economy is doing well on a broad basis. Investments by key user industries and machine tool consumption are rising in all regions. "Accordingly, the customer industries are expecting good business and are expanding their capacities," summarizes Schäfer. "All technologies in the machine tool industry are benefiting from this," he continues. Recently, forming technology has also brought in major orders again, which were lacking in the previous months.
Overall, the good investment climate has once again driven up earnings in the machine tool industry. Production in 2017 reached a new record with an increase of 4 percent and 15.7 billion euros. am
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