Economy: supply bottlenecks dampen mechanical engineering recovery | STERN.de

After cutting back on delivery bottlenecks this year, Germany’s mechanical engineering companies are confident about 2022.

“We are going into the coming year with a good dose of optimism and are assuming that the pre-Corona level will be reached,” said the president of the VDMA industry association, Karl Haeusgen, on Tuesday. According to the VDMA, production this year will increase by around 7 percent to around 219 billion euros compared to the previous year. In September an increase of 10 percent was still expected. “We could have produced more if the various delivery bottlenecks hadn’t been so persistent,” explained Haeusgen.

Thanks to full order books, the export-oriented German key industry could grow faster in the coming year than initially thought. The association currently expects an increase in production adjusted for price increases (real) of 7 percent instead of the previous 5 percent. In the corona crisis year 2020, production fell by almost 12 percent.

Orders rose sharply

In the first ten months of the current year, orders rose sharply by 34 percent, while production rose in the same period, weaker than expected, by 7.2 percent in real terms. Raw materials and intermediate products such as semiconductors are currently in short supply. Many machine-builders are therefore unable to process orders at the usual pace. According to Haeusgen, however, the industry has not yet recorded any order cancellations.

In a survey by the association at the beginning of December, in which 521 member companies took part, 84 percent said that they still felt noticeable or even serious impairments in the supply chain. Above all, there is a lack of electronic components and metals. An extensive easing of the situation is not expected until the second quarter of 2022 at the earliest; for electronic components, the companies do not expect this before the third quarter.

Largest industrial employer

Despite a slight decline in the number of employees in Germany by 1.9 percent to around 1.01 million in the second Corona year, the mechanical engineering companies remain the largest industrial employer in Germany, according to the information. According to the VDMA, 67 percent of the companies are planning to increase their permanent workforce in the coming year. However, the shortage of skilled workers causes problems. The topic is a very big challenge in the medium term, said Haeusgen.

The association is concerned about the increasing tensions in the relationship between China and the USA. In addition, the Chinese government is increasingly striving for technological self-sufficiency in key technologies. “This tends to make the business environment more difficult for foreign companies in China,” said Haeusgen. Alongside Europe and the USA, the country is one of the most important sales markets for machines “Made in Germany”.

From the perspective of mechanical engineers, the greatest challenge at the moment is combating the corona pandemic. “I personally support the demand for a mandatory vaccination,” said Haeusgen. At the same time, he warned that in order to return to solid state finances, the exit from the billion-dollar aid programs must be accelerated. “The effects of entrainment and habituation must be avoided.”