Frankfurt, 29 May 2020.In the first quarter of 2020, orders to the German machine tool industry fell by 25 per cent compared with the same period last year.Orders from within Germany were down 22 percent, and orders from outside Germany were down 27 percent.
Dr WilfriedSchafer, executive director of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers association (VDW) in Frankfurt, commented: "Global demand for machine tools fell sharply last year due to a variety of challenging factors, but at the beginning of this year it fell even more sharply."He also pointed out that only part of the coVID-19 impact can be seen in the current report, and that it will be months before the full impact of the epidemic is felt.
Orders for metal-cutting machines, which are widely used, fell more than twice as fast as those for metal-forming machines, which are more likely to come from projects.At present, Germany's domestic machine tool consumer market has brought people a glimmer of hope.Orders for machine tools in Germany unexpectedly rose 4 per cent in March, driven mainly by projects in the pressure processing industry.
The only region where Orders for German machine tools rose in the first quarter was the Americas, particularly Mexico, thanks largely to the automotive business.Among the top 15 consumer markets for machine tools, orders rose in six countries: the US, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands."Russia used to be the third largest market for the German machine tool industry," Says Schafer.However, economic sanctions have led to a sharp decline in business.Now it is quite reassuring to see Russia recovering from the current crisis."
Sales of machine tools in Germany fell by 18% in the first quarter."This is exactly in line with our 2020 forecast, which we published in February," Schafer continued."However, it is already clear that the order Numbers do not fully reflect the extent of the decline, which will eventually be more severe."In the first four months of this year, capacity utilization in Germany's machine tool industry also fell by 18 percentage points, to 64 percent.We currently expect the situation to improve in the second half of this year, but only if blockade measures are further scaled back and normal production resumes."This will determine the direction of the machine tool industry by the end of the year," he concluded.
