ZVEI – Electrical and digital industry with growth in January

Incoming orders in the German electrical and digital industry increased by 10.3 percent in January 2023 compared to the same month last year. 

“Thus, the nominal order value at the beginning of the year increased by the same rate as before on average for the whole of 2022,” said ZVEI chief economist Dr. Andreas Gontermann. “Taking into account the still inflationary environment, however, the real increase in orders was much more moderate.”

While the value of domestic orders rose by 18.3 percent in January 2023, the increase in orders from abroad was significantly lower at 4.3 percent . Customers from the euro area ordered 5.8 percent more than a year ago; orders received from third countries increased by 3.5 percent.

The real production of electrotechnical and electronic goods in Germany was 10.5 percent higher in January 2023 than in the previous year.

“In addition to the processing of high order backlogs, an additional working day should have been beneficial for this high growth, which was not necessarily expected,” says Gontermann.

For 2023 as a whole, the ZVEI is currently assuming that the 2022 production level will be maintained. Last year, the price-adjusted industry output grew by three and a half percent.

The aggregate nominal turnover of the German electrical and digital companies came to 18.7 billion euros in January 2023 and was thus 16.1 percent higher than a year ago.

In business with customers from Germany, 9.2 billion euros (+ 18.8%) were generated. Sales with foreign business partners amounted to 9.5 billion euros in January, exceeding the corresponding figure for the previous year by 13.8 percent. Business with partners outside the euro zone (+ 16.4% to €6.1 billion) was even better than that with customers from the common currency area (+ 9.2% to €3.4 billion). Last year, 2022, industry revenues grew by 12.1% to €224.8 billion, setting a new record.

The electronics companies revised both their production and employment plans downwards in February. Overall, however, they remain positive. The last number of employees in the industry was 898,000.

The business climate in the German electronics and digital industry in February of this year remained more or less the same as in the previous month: “While the current situation was assessed somewhat more unfavorably than in January, general business expectations continued to improve, albeit only slightly,” says Gontermann.

 

Source
ZVEI – Germany’s Electrical Industry