German sales rise
19 March 2008
According to the latest estimates by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), sales of German-built construction and building materials equipment will grow +15% this year to € 13,5 billion. These will comprise € 10,7 billion worth of construction equipment and € 3,5 billion of building material, ceramics and glass machinery.
“The reason why the economic situation currently is so good is mainly due to the fact that export sales increased by +13,6% compared to the previous year. This was totally unexpected”, said Dr Peter Hug, deputy managing director of the association of construction equipment and building material machinery industry.
“We certainly had not expected this to happen at all when asked at the beginning of this year. With the Euro being in a bit of an unfortunate situation compared to the US Dollar and the Yen as well as with the 'housing starts' in the US falling, we were expecting to see the sales growth going down as well.”
According to Dr Hug, exports account for about 70% of the German industry's revenues. However, domestic sales are also on the increase, with a +19% rise expected this year.
The VDMA predicts a further rise of +5% to +10% for 2008, driven by European demand and emerging markets such as Russia and India.
