Orders fell by 21 per cent in real terms in August, according to industry association VDMA

The trend of declining order intake in the mechanical and plant engineering sector continued in August. As the industry association VDMA (https://vdma.org) announced today, Wednesday, orders fell by a total of 21 per cent in real terms.

Downward trend in the euro zone

Domestic orders fell by 13 per cent, while demand from abroad fell short of the previous year’s level by 24 per cent. There were 33 per cent fewer orders from the euro area in the month under review, and 20 per cent fewer orders from non-euro countries, it said.

“The particularly high rate of decline in the euro area is due to a base effect: in August 2022 there were many orders for large-scale plants from euro countries. A turnaround in orders from Germany and abroad is not in sight,” says VDMA analyst Olaf Wortmann.

Orders still to be processed

However, according to the economic expert, the high range of orders on hand (as of July: 11.1 months) can still buffer production, which exceeded its year-earlier level by 1.7 per cent in real terms in the period January to July.

In the less volatile three-month period from June to August 2023, orders fell by 16 per cent year-on-year in real terms. Domestic orders were 13 per cent lower and foreign orders 17 per cent lower. The euro countries remained 14 per cent below the previous year’s level, the minus from the non-euro countries amounted to 17 per cent.