German industry expanded its production in December.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The year 2021, which was characterized by material shortages and disrupted supply chains, ended for German companies with an unexpected setback in production. Industry, construction and energy suppliers together produced 0.3 percent less than in the previous month, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Monday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters, on the other hand, had expected an increase of 0.4 percent. In November, production had grown by a revised 0.3 percent, after a minus of 0.2 percent had initially been determined.
In 2021 as a whole, production was 3.0 percent higher than in the first Corona year, 2020, but it was still 5.5 percent lower than in the pre-crisis year of 2019.
However, there is also a glimmer of hope: industry alone expanded its production by 1.2 percent in December, the third month in a row. This means that “a positive development is visible”, explained the Federal Ministry of Economics. Utilities, on the other hand, generated 0.7 percent less, while construction production even fell by 7.3 percent.
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The German industrial companies are currently sitting on bulging order books. In the past few months, however, the orders could not be processed as usual – for example due to acute bottlenecks in preliminary products such as microchips, which are slowing down the automotive industry, for example.
Material shortage in industry decreases
The shortage of materials in industry eased somewhat at the beginning of the year: 67.3 percent of companies complained about bottlenecks and problems in procuring preliminary products and raw materials, as the Ifo Institute found out in its survey. In December it was still around 82 percent.
“It is not yet clear whether this is a trend reversal,” said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of the Ifo surveys. The situation remains particularly tense for manufacturers of electrical equipment, machine builders and the automotive industry.
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