German industry orders fewer machines

Dusseldorf The annual mechanical engineering summit begins in Berlin on Tuesday. Leading industry representatives will hold two-day conferences with both Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens). There is something urgent to discuss: the monthly figures for incoming orders show that the energy price crisis is leading to an increasing reluctance to invest among German customers.

Adjusted for inflation, domestic orders fell by six percent in August. In nominal terms, the volume of incoming orders has stagnated because demand from abroad has increased and manufacturers are also able to pass some of the cost pressure on to customers. The verdict of Ralph Wiechers, chief economist of the Association of German Machine and Plant Manufacturers (VDMA), is therefore not entirely negative: “In view of the never-ending bottlenecks, price increases and imponderables, the figures are more than impressive,” says the expert.