Bavaria Industries that depend on exports cannot find a way out of the crisis that has been going on for three years. In the first nine months of the year, both exports and imports fell, as announced by the State Statistics Office in Fürth. According to preliminary figures, companies exported goods worth 168.6 billion euros from the beginning of January to the end of September, down 0.9 percent compared to the same period last year. Imports fell 0.7 percent to 169.8 billion euros.
Big minus in exports of cars and machinery
So far the year has been equally unpleasant for Bavaria’s two most important industries, automotive and mechanical engineering: The Carry out “passenger cars and mobile homes” fell by 5.6 percent, and auto parts exports fell by 5.7 percent. Things looked almost as bad for the “machines” with a loss of 5.1 percent.
The trade deficit with China is getting bigger
The decline in China’s business exports was well above average, with a decline of more than 17 percent to just under 10.3 billion euros. In contrast, imports from the People’s Republic of China increased slightly by 0.7 percent to more than 24 billion euros despite the ongoing crisis in Germany. This increases the trade deficit, which has tended to increase over the years China. Exports to the US also fell at an above-average rate of six percent.
The figures show that China’s leadership has largely implemented the “Made in China 2025” goals announced last decade – imports from the West and Japan are being replaced by Chinese production in increasing quantities. However, as Chinese industry has built up large amounts of excess capacity in some industrial sectors and the United States has increasingly closed itself off from Chinese imports, many industrial companies there have increasingly sought to enter the European market, including automakers and mechanical engineers.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251120-930-317310/1
