German grinding technology defies global challenges at the start of the year

In the first quar­ter of 2022, incom­ing orders in the Ger­man grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy indus­try rose by 48 per­cent com­pared to the same peri­od last year. Domes­tic orders increased by 71 per­cent. For­eign orders were 43 per­cent up on the pre­vi­ous year. Sales also held up very well despite the bot­tle­neck sit­u­a­tion: the first three months of the year saw a strong year-on-year increase of 34 percent.

The start to the year was very encour­ag­ing in the grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy indus­try. The con­se­quences of the Rus­sia-Ukraine war are not yet vis­i­ble in our cur­rent grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy fig­ures,” says Dr. Wil­fried Schäfer, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of the VDW (Ger­man Machine Tool Builders’ Asso­ci­a­tion), Frank­furt am Main. In any case, the two mar­kets take up only 3 per­cent of Ger­man exports of grind­ing, hon­ing and lap­ping machines, which totaled about 654 mil­lion euros last year.

Orders from the euro zone at the cur­rent mar­gin show that this devel­op­ment could also be reversed: For March, the indus­try had to record a strong minus of 49 per­cent. Sales were down by almost 36 per­cent. Sup­ply bot­tle­necks as well as the con­se­quences of the war in Ukraine and the after­math of the Coro­na pan­dem­ic are the names of the challenges. 

The econ­o­my is cur­rent­ly under enor­mous pres­sure: After the Coro­na-relat­ed cri­sis, China’s zero-covid pol­i­cy is now exac­er­bat­ing sup­ply bot­tle­necks. At present, there are no signs of relief at all. This makes it all the more impor­tant for com­pa­nies to show their pres­ence now, to estab­lish new con­tacts and main­tain exist­ing net­works — all of which our exhibitors will be able to do at Grind­ingHub,” Schäfer not­ed. In about two weeks, the new trade fair for grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy will cel­e­brate its pre­miere in Stuttgart. Three halls are now ful­ly booked with more than 370 exhibitors from a total of 23 coun­tries and almost 18,000 m² of net exhi­bi­tion space.

Author: Tobias Beck­mann, Online Edi­tor, VDW

Categories: 2022