At the traditional VDMA press conference during the Hannover Messe, VDMA President Karl Haeusgen provided an insight into the association's current data and assessments. Just like the Hannover Messe, the press conference was held purely online.

"In particular, the prospects for further growth in China and other Asian countries as well as the USA are good. Order intake is clearly on a growth path. The chances that production will grow again, starting in the second quarter compared to the previous year, are also good. Therefore, we are increasing our previous forecast by 3 percentage points and now expect real production growth of 7 per cent in 2021," explains Haeusgen. In the previous year, production slumped by a good 12 percent.

VDMA survey confirms stable optimism

Countervailing developments include supply bottlenecks for certain components, structural change and economic tensions, particularly between the USA and China. Nevertheless, the VDMA's 10th Corona Flash Survey confirmed continued optimism in the machinery and plant engineering sector. According to the survey, 26 percent have no problems with order losses, and another 40 percent have only minor problems. In addition, 24 percent of all companies expect further decreasing problems on the demand side. However, about the same number of companies are suffering from bottlenecks in their supply chains.

Short-time working prevents redundancies

Currently, staff reductions are still taking place in 15 percent of companies. According to the VDMA, the short-time working regulations will prevent a greater reduction. In addition, there is hope that the wave of layoffs will not occur at all. For the current year, 65 percent of the companies stated that they intend to increase their workforce. 48 percent intend to increase their workforce by a maximum of 5 percent.

The number of short-time workers in the mechanical and plant engineering sector was still around 90,000 in March. Overall, the mechanical engineering sector in Germany employed 1.004 million people in companies with more than 50 employees in January, which is 4 percent fewer than in 2020. Around 1.4 million people work in this sector in all companies, including those with 50 or fewer employees.

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