Press release No. 102 of 19 March 2018
WIESBADEN – Based on provisional data, the price adjusted stock of orders in manufacturing in January 2018 rose a calendar and seasonally adjusted 1.4% on the previous month, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The domestic orders not yet completed increased 1.6% on the previous month, the stock of foreign orders rose 1.3%. The stock of orders comprises the total of new orders received by the end of the reference month which have not led to any turnover and have not been cancelled by that time.
Unfilled orders recorded for producers of intermediate goods in January 2018 were by 0.7% higher than in the previous month. The producers of investment goods recorded an increase of 1.6%. Regarding consumer goods, the stock was up by 2.0%.
The ratio between unfilled orders and turnover can be interpreted as the "range of the stock of orders, in months". In January 2018, the range of the stock of orders in manufacturing was 5.5 months (previous month: 5.4). The range indicates for how many months establishments theoretically are able to, or have to, produce goods - with turnover remaining constant and without any new orders being received - to complete all orders on hand.
The range of the stock of orders in January 2018 was 3.0 months (previous month: 3.0) for the producers of intermediate goods, 7.6 months (previous month: 7.4) for the producers of investment goods, and 2.0 months (previous month: 1.9) for consumer goods.
The data on unfilled orders are based on the volume index of the stock of orders in manufacturing, calendar and seasonally adjusted by means of the X13 JDemetra+ method. The index of the stock of orders covers only selected branches of manufacturing, as does the index of new orders.
Detailed data are available from the GENESIS-Online database (42155 indices of the stock of orders and 42113 ranges of the stock of orders).
