Germany: industrial production falls. And the German car loses its prestige
The German manufacturing PMI was a good predictor of industrial activity this time around. Industrial production in Germany unexpectedly declined by 0.2% month-on-month in May 2023, departing from the market consensus of a flat reading and following April's 0.3% increase.
Production decreased for basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations (-13.1%) and for energy production (-7%). However, the production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers increased by 4.9%.
Overall, the production of consumer goods decreased by 1.2% and that of intermediate goods by 0.5% . The production of capital goods instead increased by 1.3%. Outside the industrial sector, construction production fell by 0.4% confirming the crisis in the real estate sector.
Year-on-year, industrial production growth slowed to 0.7% in May from 1.7% in April. If nothing else, the decline has slowed down. Here is the relative graph
So we are below the 2022 production level, and German industry continues to decline. Among other things, some myths of the industry are starting to fall, such as, for example, the reliability of the automotive sector. Let's take an example :
The British Auto-express magazine has made a ranking of the 10 most reliable cars for sale in the UK. Of these 10 cars, only one is German, the BMW I3. The rest are seven Japanese, one Anglo-American, the Ford, and one Korean. The Japanese have now taken the lead in world quality, replacing Germany in the US rankings as well.
If Germany is no longer a symbol of quality, it cannot be a symbol of convenience either. At this point the German auto industry loses much of its sense.
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The article Germany: industrial production falls. And the German car loses its prestige comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/germania-cala-la-produzione-indistriale-e-lauto-tedesca-perde-il-suo-prestigio/ on Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:03:01 +0000.