Mechanical engineering German car industry shrinks in the first half of the year

Weak demand, the threat of job cuts, lowered forecasts - the German car industry is in crisis. This can also be seen in the figures for the first half of the year.

According to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, revenue in Germany's most important industrial sector fell by 4.7 percent to 269.5 billion euros in nominal terms, i.e. not adjusted for price effects, compared to the same period last year. In the same period last year, car manufacturers such as BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler had posted record nominal sales of 282.6 billion euros, partly due to higher prices.

With a 25.2 percent share of total industrial turnover, the automotive sector remained the industry with the highest turnover in the first half of the year. The decline in sales affected all sectors: Sales of car bodies, superstructures and trailers shrank by 11.6 percent, sales of parts and accessories for motor vehicles such as alternators, gearboxes or bumpers fell by 5.4 percent and in the manufacture of motor vehicles and engines the decline amounted to 4.3 percent.

Foreign business down only slightly

At 189 billion euros or 70 percent, foreign business accounted for a large proportion of the industry's turnover. In the same period of the previous year, manufacturers still achieved foreign sales of 198.1 billion euros.

Around 1.7 million new cars worth 68.4 billion euros were exported from Germany in the first half of 2024. This means that the number fell only slightly by 0.3% compared to the first half of 2023. Domestic sales fell from 84.5 billion euros in the same period last year to 80.5 billion euros in the first six months of this year.

At the end of the first half of the year, around 773,000 people were employed by car manufacturers excluding suppliers, 0.8% fewer than a year ago. In comparison: at the end of the first half of 2019, the industry still employed around 834,000 people.

SDA