Ex-German machinery and equipment manufacturers’ export orders to China fall

The German Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Federation (VDMA) recently released data showing that the number of orders received by German machinery and equipment manufacturers in July this year increased by 18% year-on-year, and the number of orders from Germany increased significantly, with a year-on-year increase of 43%. VDMA economist Ralph Wiechers said that what is different from the past situation is that the number of orders received by machinery and equipment manufacturing companies from their own countries and the euro zone has increased significantly, and the year-on-year increase in orders from the euro zone has even reached 51%. However, due to unsatisfactory sales from January to June, order growth in the first seven months of this year was only 2%, and exports to China fell by 5% in the first half of the year.
However, the recent depreciation of the RMB has allowed German machinery and equipment manufacturers to benefit from it. Oliver Wack from the VDMA’s foreign trade policy department said that the depreciation of the RMB has a limited impact on German machinery and equipment exports. German products have never won based on price. German machinery and equipment manufacturers mainly sell high-tech equipment in China, while local Chinese manufacturers occupy the mid-range price market and their competitive advantages are not obvious.