Order intake in the mechanical and plant engineering sector in North Rhine-Westphalia in June 2023 fell short of its prior-year result by 1 percent in real terms.
Demand from the domestic market was down 7 percent. Incoming orders from abroad rose by 2 percent. The euro area contributed to this result with a drop of 3 percent and the non-euro area with an increase of 4 percent.
In the more meaningful three-month period April to June 2023, incoming orders increased by 5 percent year-on-year. Orders from the domestic market increased by 32 percent and orders from abroad decreased by 9 percent. Demand from the European region fell 10 percent short of the previous year’s figures and from non-European countries by 9 percent.
A look at the first half of 2023 shows that new orders were down 5 percent year-on-year. There was a change of plus 12 percent in domestic orders. Orders from abroad were down 14 percent, with orders from other European countries down 9 percent and those from non-European countries down 16 percent.
“The first half of the year closed with a minus in North Rhine-Westphalia’s mechanical engineering sector. The positive figure for the first half of the year for domestic orders is mainly due to a major order in May of the year and distorts the picture,” explains Hans-Jürgen Alt, Manager ProduktionNRW, adding, “A turnaround is not in sight, even if the June figures show the first positive aspects. The numerous crises and problems are putting the brakes on investment activity. Companies are reducing their still high order backlogs while new orders are declining.”