Mechanical engineering construction site: The core industrial sector is preparing for difficult times.
Image: dpa
The industry has to lower its forecast, loses orders and sometimes despairs of the EU – but things get even worse. Nothing scares mechanical engineers more than the former US president and his think tanks.
DThe German mechanical engineering industry is preparing for a lot next year. As the industry association VDMA announced on Tuesday in Frankfurt, it expects a decline in production of 4 percent in 2024 – previously it had assumed minus 2 percent. The crisis-tested and export-strong industry is increasingly feeling the effects of the weakness of the global economy, and even the notoriously generous order backlog is becoming thinner and thinner. Unlike before, many companies will not be able to get through this weak phase.
Although the industry kept production relatively high at the beginning of the year, it achieved growth of just under 1 percent up to and including October. But after the first two quarters at the latest, the momentum was over. In the third quarter, the decline compared to the previous year was already 1.6 percent, “and the fourth quarter will also be weak,” said VDMA President Karl Haeusgen. What good is it that the production forecast for this year – a volume of around 250 billion euros – was just off the mark of minus two percent and was a shade better at minus 1 percent? More crucial is the darkened outlook for 2024.
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