Data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that in January, factory orders fell by 11.3%, almost offsetting the December increase (+12%, revised from +8.9%), and recording the sharpest decline since July 2023. Economists had expected a 6% drop. Meanwhile, over the last three months (through January), factory orders rose by 2.3% compared to the previous three months.
Destatis said that the sharp drop in January was due to the large volume of large orders in December. In January 2024, the volume of large orders returned to the average level. This basic effect was especially pronounced in the production of electrical equipment (-33.2%), other vehicles (especially airplanes, ships, trains; -27.3%) and the production of metal products (-14.5%). The volume of new orders in mechanical engineering also decreased - by 4.7% after falling by 4.9% in December. In the automotive industry, by contrast, new orders increased by 4.2% after a 5.8% decline in December.
As for sectors, new orders fell in the capital goods sector (-13.1% m/m), in the intermediate goods sector (-9.3% m/m) and in the consumer goods sector (-5.7% m/m),
Meanwhile, foreign orders declined by 8.5% compared to December, while new orders from the euro area fell by 25.7% and orders from the rest of the world rose by 1.6%. Domestic orders fell by 11.2% on a monthly basis.