Customers from the eurozone ordered 12.4% less than in the previous year, while customers from third countries ordered 17.1% more. Incoming orders for the first half of 2019 were therefore down 1.6% on the previous year. Domestic orders fell by 0.9% and foreign orders by 2.1%. Orders from the eurozone fell by 3.1% and those from third countries by 1.5%.

The price-adjusted production of German electrical and electronics companies fell significantly short of the previous year's figure in June at minus 13.5% - although it also had a full three working days fewer than in 2018. This results in a decline in production of 3.9% for the first half of 2019. "Given the ever-increasing uncertainty about the economic trend, particularly in light of the recent massive escalation in the trade dispute between the US and China and the growing risk of a no-deal Brexit, it will be very difficult to actually achieve our production forecast of plus one percent," says Gontermann.

Capacity utilization in the industry fell by 1.5% at the start of the third quarter of 2019 to 84.2% of the usual full capacity. At the same time, the order backlog fell from 3.4 to 3.1 months of production.

The nominal turnover of German electrical companies fell by 11.1% to EUR 14.0 billion in June. Domestic and foreign sales fell almost equally by 11.3% to EUR 6.6 billion and 10.9% to EUR 7.4 billion respectively. Business with the eurozone fell by 5.7% to EUR 2.9 billion, while business with third countries dropped by 13.9% to EUR 4.5 billion.

Between January and June, industry revenue amounted to EUR 109.8 billion. This roughly corresponds to the previous year's level. Here too, domestic and foreign sales developed similarly. While revenue from customers in the eurozone increased by 1.6% to EUR 21.8 billion in the first half of the year, revenue from business with third countries fell by 1.8% to EUR 36.5 billion.

For the first time since October 2014, the business climate in the German electrical and electronics industry fell below the zero line in July. The current situation was assessed as significantly worse than in June, but general business expectations also fell slightly.