German machine-builders have been shifting their export markets since the world economic crisis — new in the Quest Trend Magazine

The still dominating role of the European Union countries for the machine export has dramatically been relativized since 2008. And even the export shares into the BRIC countries show up noticeable shifts.

 

The turnover of the German machinery industry achieved its crisis low with 67.5 index points (value index of the German Federal Statistical Office) at the beginning of 2010. Then started a rapid upward movement slightly exceeding with 137.6 at the end of 2010 the high at the beginning of the world economic crisis 2008 (135.1). Since then this upward development is replaced by a large sideways movement. That applies to total sales of the German machinery industry and also to its partitioning on domestic and foreign sales.

 

The export markets of the German machinery industry are highly concentrated. In 2008 three quarters of the machine exports (76%) went into the European Union (52%) and into further six countries (24%), which consist of the BRIC countries and of the USA and Japan. All other 199 export countries came together only to a machine export share of 24% (2008).

 

Since the world economic crisis 2008/2009 a partial dramatic shifting of the export markets shows up.

 

Since the outbreak of the crisis the export quota into the European Union has continuously been declining from 52% (2008) to 44% in the year 2012. At the same time the machine-builders have been increasing their exports into the countries China, the USA, Russia, India, Brazil and Japan. The share of these six countries at the exports rose from 24% in 2008 to 30% in 2012.

 

The dramatic character of the shifting of the export markets becomes obvious in the fact that the export share into the European Union in 2008 still exceeded that into the six countries by 28 percentage points. Just five years later this difference was cut in half to 14 percentage points! (European Union 44%, BRIC and the USA, Japan 30%, numbers for 2012 according to the foreign trade statistic of the German Federal Statistical Office).

 

The development of the export shares into the BRIC countries as well as in the USA and Japan since 2008 shows:

The world economic crisis 2008/2009 has catapulted China to the most important export market of the machine-builders outside of the European Union. The export quota of machines to China rose from 6.6% (2008) to its maximum value of 11.5% in 2011. It was 10.2% in 2012. The export share into the USA has become lower than that to China since 2009 being 9.1% in 2012.

 

The export shares of machines to Russia, Brazil, India and Japan have been stagnating since the world economic crisis.

 

The Quest Trend Magazine classifies these trends regarding the export markets into the trends of the worldwide industrial production and suggests the further issues: Analysis of the capital export of the German machinery industry and analysis of the technological demand pattern in the BRIC countries compared with that of the industrialized countries such as the European Union, the USA and Japan.

 

The link to the article in the Quest Trend Magazine is http://www.quest-trendmagazin.de/Foreign-trade-machinery-indust.253.0.html?&L=1.