According to the German Association for Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA), the order intake to the German mechanical and plant engineering was down by 49% (in real terms) in February as compared to February last year. Particularly hit was the business with foreign clients demand by whom fell by 50% while domestic demand decreased by 45%. Comparing the three-months-period from December to February the drop amounted to 44% (domestic demand: -38 %; foreign demand: -46 %). For this year VDMA expect output to fall by between 10% and 20%.
The VDMA revised its recent forecast from the beginning of April according to which output was expected to fall by -7%. Now the VDMA economists believe that output by German mechanical engineering is going to fall by between 10% and 20% in real figures this year. 