German machine-tool orders up
February 3, 2015
A surge in foreign demand boosted Germany's key mechanical engineering sector in December, fresh figures from the VDMA industry federation revealed Tuesday.
Overall incoming orders rose by 13 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, with exports soaring by 15 percent and domestic demand up by 8 percent.
VDMA Chief Economist Ralph Wiechers noted the strong December figures came about because of a rather low level of big-ticket orders from the eurozone a year ago.
Major employer
But he said the sector's overall performance left much to be desired. "At the bottom line, domestic and export orders both increased by 2 percent for the whole year, short of our expectations," Wiechers said in a statement.
He added that earlier attempts to reverse a downward trend had been nipped in the bud by geopolitical tensions over the Ukraine conflict, which he said had also impacted companies' willingness to make investments at home.
Real production in 2014 totaled 199 billion euros ($225 billion), with the VDMA's 2015 outlook being extremely cautious, not foreseeing a marked uptick in the months ahead.
The German machine-tool sector employs about 1 million people and constitutes a key part of the nation's industrial and export performance.
hg/pad (dpa, Reuters, AFP)