Weak demand, threatened job cuts, lowered forecasts – the German auto industry is in crisis. This can also be seen in the figures for the first half of the year.
The weak sales of German car manufacturers had an impact on the industry’s sales in the first half of the year. As the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced, sales in Germany’s most important industrial sector fell by 4.7 percent to 269.5 billion euros compared to the same period last year in nominal terms, i.e. not adjusted for price effects. In the same period last year, car manufacturers such as BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler posted record sales of 282.6 billion euros in nominal terms, partly due to increased prices.
With a 25.2 percent share of total industrial sales, the automotive industry remained the industry with the highest sales in the first half of the year. The decline in sales affected all areas: Sales for bodies, bodies and trailers fell by 11.6 percent, for parts and accessories for motor vehicles such as alternators, transmissions or bumpers by 5.4 percent and for the production of motor vehicles and engines Minus to 4.3 percent.
Foreign business made up a large part of the industry’s sales at 189 billion euros or 70 percent. In the same period last year, manufacturers brought in 198.1 billion euros in foreign sales. Around 1.7 million new cars worth 68.4 billion euros were exported from Germany in the first half of 2024, meaning the number only fell slightly by 0.3 percent compared to the first half of 2023. Domestic sales fell from 84.5 billion euros in the same period last year to 80.5 billion euros in the first six months of this year.
At the end of the first half of the year, around 773,000 people were employed by car manufacturers without suppliers, 0.8 percent fewer than a year ago. For comparison: at the end of the first half of 2019, the industry still had around 834,000 employees.
Source: Stern
