Press release No. 283 of 6 July 2022
New orders in manufacturing:
May 2022 (in real terms, provisional):
+0.1% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-3.1% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted )
April 2022 (in real terms, revised):
-1.8% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-5.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted )
WIESBADEN – Real (price adjusted) new orders in manufacturing remained almost the same (+0.1%) on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, in May 2022 compared with April 2022, according to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Not including major orders, a 0.9% decrease in new orders in manufacturing was recorded in May 2022. Compared with May 2021, new orders were by a calendar adjusted 3.1% lower.
Foreign orders in manufacturing increased by 1.3% in May 2022 on the previous month. New orders from the non-euro area went up by 3.7%. New orders from the euro area fell by 2.4% and domestic orders registered a decrease of 1.5% on the previous month.
The producers of capital goods recorded an increase of 3.3%. Producers of intermediate goods saw new orders in May 2022 fall 3.2% on the month before. Regarding consumer goods, orders went down 4.5%.
After revision of provisional results for April 2022, a decrease of 1.8% on March 2022 was recorded (provisional figure: -2.7%).
Turnover up 3.2% on the previous month
According to provisional figures, real turnover in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) increased 3.2% in May 2022 compared with April 2022. Compared with May 2021, turnover was by a calendar adjusted 1.0% higher.
Although new orders stagnated and turnover increased markedly, the volume of new orders was higher than the volume of turnover in May 2022, as in the preceding months. The excess demand is likely to be due to the continuing acute shortage of intermediate products. Enterprises still have difficulties completing their orders as supply chains are interrupted because of the war in Ukraine and distortions persist that have been caused by the Covid-19 crisis, such as the closure of ports in China. 77.2% of the industrial enterprises surveyed complained of bottlenecks and problems in procuring intermediate products and raw materials in May 2022, according to the ifo Institute for Economic Research. The Federal Statistical Office shows the relationship between material shortages and industrial activity in an analysis with continuously updated figures.
For April 2022, revision of the preliminary outcome resulted in an increase of 0.6% compared with March 2022 (provisional: +0.5%).
As in the preceding months, the total of the values reported for new orders in many branches of manufacturing in April 2022 was higher than total turnover. The excess demand is likely to be due to the continuing acute shortage of intermediate products (see dossier containing information on delivery bottlenecks (only in German)). As a result, many enterprises have problems filling new orders. The situation went slightly back to normal due to the decrease in new orders in May 2022.
Methodological note:
The differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons with the previous month or previous quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. A calendar adjusted comparison with the previous year is intended to offer a long-term comparison of levels and is independent of seasonal fluctuations.
The data on new orders and on turnover are based on the volume index of manufacturing, calendar and seasonally adjusted by means of the X13 JDemetra+ method.
New orders and turnover are covered and evaluated in accordance with the Classification of Economic Activities, 2008 edition (WZ 2008). New orders are covered only in selected branches of manufacturing.
Detailed data and long time series are available from the GENESIS-Online database: indices of new orders (42151-0004) and indices of new orders excluding large-scale orders (42151-0008) and turnover indices (42152-0004).
New orders in manufacturing form part of the Crisis monitor (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), by means of which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the Covid-19 crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The data are also available on the Corona Statistics webpage (www.destatis.de/corona) and in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de), together with other indicators which can be used to assess the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dashboard Germany portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators of official statistics and indicators of other data providers on the topics of economy and finance as well as health and mobility.
