The German market, a market for the Spanish machine-tool

Thus began indicating that Spanish machine tool to Germany supplies have remained at a good level although he added that "Spain, eighth largest in the world people's economy, already felt the global financial and economic crisis during the second half of 2008". In addition, economic performance declined significantly during 2009 and in the current year the country is fighting against the explosion of their burden of debt. Among the most important industrial branches of the country are the automotive industry, metals machining and the construction of machines, but "especially the car industry has suffered much by the crisis".

For Wilfried Schäfer, "modern machine tools represent a very important role in the performance and capacity, which are the heart of industrial production." In fact, the Spanish machine tool industry itself is currently among the most important players in the world: in 2009 the country ranked ninth among the major producers and the 17 position among the largest markets. However, last year the production of machine tools dropped more than a third. "This retreat of the Spanish industrial production is evident in the decline in the consumption of machine tools".

As a result, behind the Italians, Germany is the second largest supplier in the field of machine tools for Spain. From the German point of view, in 2009 Spain was ranked # 16 of the most important export markets. With a loss of 37 per cent to the 115,5 billion euros, supplies are still down, once in 2008 they already experienced a setback. Sells a wide range of technology whose key points are the parts and accessories, machining, laser and machines gear cutting centres.

Spanish machine tool industry is contained in the market as an important supplier in Germany. Throughout 2009 machines were supplied by a value of more than 100 million euros. Even if this fact means a decrease of 7%, the truth is that it demonstrates that Spanish providers have been maintained in a fairly good position compared to the others and this has enabled them to climb in the top 10 of 2008 until the post 5 of last year.

Turning to the sector in Germany, Schäfer commented that the German machine tool industry returns to be more optimistic for the year 2010. "Although this year returns to be very difficult, we expect a clear improvement of the business during the first half of the year". In this sense, the managing director of the VDM explained that while 2010 will be a difficult year, "with the demand that we are taking is expected some recovery, which will be slow." "The orders are still entering, although with some delay", pointing out that the time needed to see this effect in the volume of sales will not be sufficient to achieve a growth of production. Therefore, by 2010 the VDW part of a decline of 10% in the German production of machine tools. "However, we fully believe that German manufacturers will be able to benefit in 2011 that the international engine of the investment back into full power".

To Wilfried Schäfer, the recovery in demand is driven by business abroad and business projects. The emerging countries such as China and the India have recovered quickly from the global financial and economic crisis. Other important markets such as the USA, Russia, Brazil or Korea of the South are returning to the path of growth. Most of the orders currently comes from the business of projects. Domestic demand is stabilizing more slowly and at the moment is primarily being driven by storage cycle.

2009, better than expected

"It sounds cynical, 2009 was not as bad as we expected". And it is that the back over the last year for Schäfer, allows to place on record that for the German industry of machine tool in 2009 was better than feared, "Although the sector has had to live a fall never seen before". Instead the decline about 40% as expected even by mid-2009, by the end of the year this decline was 'only' of 30% from the previous year, with an amount of € 9,900 million.

However, this decline is unprecedented in history. All the ratios of 2009 show tremendous losses. Order intake fell by more than half. The national orders lost 61% and 50% international orders. Exports fell by 26% in 2009. Only supplies bound for the southeastern and South-East Asia were able to upload. With a growth of German exports to China from 13% to reach 1.3 billion euros, the Chinese market is now nearly three times higher than the United States which occupy the second place

The decline in employment has been clearly disproportionate. Since that was the maximum level in the autumn of 2008, the number of employees has declined in about 7,500 people, which is the same, 10%, reaching 65 900 men and women at the end of 2009.

A more flexible labour market and the regulation of the hours reduced in Germany have helped to keep employees during this time. Many companies want to keep their employees even in such adverse conditions until the crisis because they know very well that just may face economic expansion with qualified employees. However, there forget that already have been adapted clearly capabilities through the reduction of overtime, subcontracting and the completion of labour relations of time-bound framework.

The occupation of the capabilities of the industry of machine tools in January was 67.6 per cent, which means for the sector that the reduction of orders to half echoes now also very powerfully on the production. Last October, 2009 order backlog was still in 5.6 months. Both figures relate to the level of production clearly reduced.

"In this crisis, the German machine tool industry is much better prepared than in previous recessions", said Wilfried Schäfer resounding. "An indication of this is that the German manufacturers have clearly ahead of his main competitor, Japan, whose production of machine tools has fallen twice as the German, in particular, 60 per cent to about 5 billion euros, without taking into account the parts and accessories sector". It also take into account that German manufacturers have slightly increased their share of global market and are now 7% ahead of the Japanese.

Good prospects in the medium term

At this point, the head of the VDM was blunt: "machine tools are needed in all places where any industrial production takes place". So because, for him, the challenges of the future such as the growth of the world's population that requires food and clothing, the depletion of energy resources and raw materials, the growing demand for mobility, and many other factors ensures the machine tool industry development successfully. Especially in Germany is a powerful industrial branch which plays in first division with international competition. "When to dispose the knot and they become to make investments, the Germans will be in one of the top".