The shortage of chips is putting pressure on the German auto industry.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The material shortage in German industry worsened in November. 74.4 percent of the companies complained of bottlenecks and problems in the procurement of preliminary products and raw materials, as the Munich-based Ifo Institute announced on Monday for its survey. That is four percentage points more than in October.
“The hoped-for relaxation has not materialized,” said the head of the Ifo surveys, Klaus Wohlrabe. “An end to the bottleneck recession in the industry is not in sight.”
The tense situation in procurement with a very good order backlog at the same time has consequences for price developments. “Never before have so many companies announced that they will increase their prices,” added Wohlrabe.
The number of companies with procurement problems has risen in almost all industries. The only exception are the manufacturers of electrical equipment: 85 percent of the companies there complained of difficulties in procurement after 90 percent in the last time. This means that the industry is still one of the hardest hit.
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This also includes mechanical engineering with 86 percent and the automotive industry with 88 percent. The beverage manufacturers are at the lower end: 40 percent of the companies there reported bottlenecks.
In view of the production bottlenecks, orders at German industrial companies are piling up higher than ever before. It rose continuously from June 2020 to September 2021 and has now reached the highest level since the survey began in January 2015, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
“The companies in the manufacturing sector received more new orders than they could process,” the statisticians summarized the development. “One of the main reasons for the high order backlog is likely to be delivery bottlenecks for preliminary products.” For example, car manufacturers suffer from a lack of chips, which is why they cannot build as many vehicles despite strong demand.
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