Thus, new orders in the German electrical and digital industry increased by 1.7 percent overall in the first half of 2023. While domestic customers still increased their orders here by 7.2 percent, orders from foreign business partners fell short of their prior-year figure by 2.6 percent. In this context, 8.3 percent fewer new orders were received from the euro zone than in the same period in 2022, while 0.7 percent more orders were received from non-EU countries.
Price-adjusted production of electrical goods increased by 5.6 percent year-on-year in June. “This is also due to the fact that June had one more working day this year than last year,” Giehl explained. For the first six months of 2023, overall industry output was up 4.3 percent. However, the figures for the previous months of 2023 were revised downward.
Nominal revenues of domestic electrical and digital companies came to EUR 21.5 billion in June 2023, up 15.4 percent from a year earlier. Domestic sales (up 14.9% to €10.2 billion) grew almost as strongly as foreign sales (up 15.8% to €11.3 billion). Business with the euro zone increased by 12.4 percent to €4.0 billion in June. Sales to non-EU countries totaled €7.3 billion – up 17.8 percent.
For the first half of the year, aggregate industry sales totaled €120.4 billion, exceeding its year-earlier figure by 13.8 percent. Domestic sales increased by 16.1 percent to 58.1 billion euros between January and June this year. Foreign sales advanced by 12.0 percent to €62.3 billion (euro zone: + 10.6 percent to €22.4 billion, third countries: + 12.8 percent to €39.9 billion).
At the beginning of the third quarter, industry-wide capacity utilization stood at 84.6 percent, a good one percentage point lower than three months earlier. The order backlog also shortened from 5.2 to 4.7 (production) months. Although pressure in the supply chains continues to ease, 35 percent of companies are already experiencing a shortage of orders. Three months ago, the figure was only 22 percent.
In July 2023, the business climate in the German electrical and digital industry fell for the fourth month in a row, dropping below the zero line for the first time since fall 2020. “Both the assessment of the situation and expectations were significantly weaker than in June,” Giehl said. Employment, production and export expectations also declined in July, all falling into negative territory on balance.
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Graphic: ZVEI
