Amidst weak international trade, German industrial orders decline. Manufacturers have once again not had much good news to report from the most recent German economic statistics. Year over year, both exports and imports have decreased, and industrial orders have fallen for six consecutive months.In addition to industrial orders declining for the sixth consecutive month in June, a year-over-year comparison of the first half of the year showed a decline in both imports and exports.
According to Destatis, orders for German manufacturers fell 0.2% in price-adjusted terms in June compared to the same month the previous year and 6.2% less than in June of the previous year.
Mechanical engineering and the automotive branch saw the biggest declines, falling 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively, in comparison to May.
This month marks the 17th consecutive month of decline for the automotive industry.
June saw a 0.6% increase in unfulfilled orders from domestic customers—the first increase in four months—while orders from overseas decreased by 0.7%.
Both imports and exports decreased in the first half of the year.
In comparison to the same period last year, exports decreased 1.6% to reach a volume of €801.7 billion ($885.2 billion), while imports decreased 6.2% to €662.8 billion.
A significant decline in exports was observed in a few of Germany’s major industrial sectors.
The value of exported machinery goods dropped by 4.4%, while the value of cars and auto parts fell by 2.4%. Chemical product exports decreased by 4.4% as well.
The largest trade surpluses, however, were recorded in those sectors as well—€59.7 billion for machinery goods and €62.3 billion for the automotive industry.
Import surpluses were seen in the oil and gas trade (€32.5 billion) and that with agricultural products (€13.9 billion).
The United States remained the biggest buyer of German goods, ahead of France and the Netherlands, while most imports to Germany were from China
