In May 2024, order intake in North Rhine-Westphalia's mechanical and plant engineering sector was 45 percent below the previous year's result.
Domestic demand fell by 70 percent. Foreign orders fell by 15 percent. The euro area contributed to this result with a decrease of 26 percent and the non-euro area with a decrease of 10 percent.
Decrease in the three-month period
In the more meaningful three-month period from March to May 2024, orders fell by 9 percent year-on-year. Domestic orders fell by 42 percent. Orders from abroad increased by 13 percent. Demand from Europe fell 7 percent short of the previous year's level, while orders from non-European countries increased by 23 percent.
"The significant drop in domestic orders is partly due to the very high comparison base of the previous year," explains Hans-Jürgen Alt, Manager ProduktionNRW. "We have been seeing weak domestic demand all year. The mix of economic and political situation and uncertain markets is hindering investments and contract awarding on the customer side."
ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is run by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW sees itself as a platform for networking, informing and marketing companies, institutions and networks with each other and along the value chain. Significant parts of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
