Order divergence in German electro and digital industry

 

According to the ZVEI Business Cycle Report from September 2025, there is a big divergence between domestic and foreign orders.

After four growing months in a row, new orders in the German electro and digital industry received a damper in July 2025. In total, bookings failed their respective pre-year value by 8.9 %. With it, the divergence between domestic and foreign orders could have hardly been bigger. While the former collapsed by 28.9 % in July, the latter were 12.2 % up. New orders from the euro area rose by 10.8 % (year over year) and those from third countries by 13.0%.

For the full first seven months of this year a plus of 3.6 % in new orders is recorded. Here, domestic and foreign bookings have evolved very differently, too. Domestic clients lowered their orders by 5.3 % (year-on-year rate) between January and July. In contrast, foreign customers raised their bookings by 11.3 % (euro area: +7.0 %, third countries: +13.7 %).

Production and turnover

German production – adjusted for price – in the sector was below its respective 2024 level by 1.4 % in the full period from January through July. Looking ahead however, both the production and employment plans of the domestic electro companies were revised up markedly in August. The balance of firms intending to raise or rather curb their output in the coming three months jumped by full 9 %-age points from +7 to +16.

In the entire period of the first seven months of this year the sector’s aggregated turnover amounted to € 127.5 billion, leaving it slight 0.9 % higher than a year earlier. Producer prices were on average 1.1 % up (year-on-year) in that period. Turnover with the euro area advanced by 4.2 % to € 26.9 billion in the first seven months, and sales to customers from third countries increased by 3.1 % to € 41.6 billion.

Business climate

In August 2025, the business climate in the German electro and digital industry has risen for the fourth month in a row now. Even though the firms’ assessment of their current economic situation was slightly down compared to July, their overall business expectations picked up markedly once again; 21 % of the domestic electro companies have described their present situation as good in August, 51 % and 28 % found it stable or rather bad, respectively.

Regarding the prospects for the next six months to come, 18 % of the firms are awaiting rising affairs. At the same time, 69 % reckon with steady businesses, whereas 13 % still see declining activities ahead.

Caption: Sales in nominal values, change in percent compared to the previous year. Data from Destatis and ZVEI’s own calculations; allocation of foreign turnover shaded (image: ZVEI).

Source: ZVEI
www.zvei.org/en