German engineering production rises at the start of 2023 - VDMA
17/04/2023 07:30
BERLIN, April 17 (Reuters) - Production in Germany's
engineering sector rose by 3.2% in the first two months of 2023
compared with the same months last year as supply chain
bottlenecks eased considerably, the VDMA engineering association
said on Monday.
Despite a solid start to the year, VDMA stuck to its
full-year forecast for a 2% drop in production compared with
last year.
"The currently slightly improved economic environment will
only be reflected in incoming orders and sales in the industry
with a time lag," VDMA head Karl Haeusgen said in a statement.
German engineering companies' order books shrank by 17% in
January and February, VDMA said, citing a global economic
slowdown clouding investors' sentiment.
The shortage of skilled workers is currently the biggest
challenge for the industry, which employed 1.018 million people
at the end of 2022.
"Many companies would have liked to hire more staff but are
being held back by the bottlenecks in the labour market,"
Haeusgen said.
(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Riham Alkousaa; Editing by
Hugh Lawson)
((Riham.Alkousaa@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @RihamKousa;))