The recovery of the machine tool orders were largely due to an increase in foreign demand from countries beyond Europe which constituted a 16 percent increase from the previous year. Of the non-Euro countries, China contributed a slight increase while South Korea and the ASEAN region had a strong demand.

Within Europe, the strong industrial demand from Spain and Italy as well as the modernisation of production equipment in France were the drivers for growth in German machine tool orders.

On expectations for the second half of the year, Dr Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association believes that the “German industry should remain in good shape because large groups of customers are export-oriented and should benefit from the increased price competitiveness thanks to the weak Euro.”