Material Shortages Ease in German Manufacturing
German manufacturers are having an easier time sourcing raw materials and intermediate products. In April, 39.2% of the companies surveyed reported problems, down from 41.6% in March. “That’s good news for the sector, not least because it marks a rise in new orders,” says Klaus Wohlrabe, Head of Surveys at ifo. “But the companies would surely have also been delighted if the situation had eased even more.”
The current level of companies experiencing sourcing problems is below the relevant long-term average in only 4 out of the 18 industries considered in the survey. “Manufacturing has yet to experience widespread easing,” Wohlrabe says.
Among manufacturers of electrical equipment, the proportion decreased by just under 10 percentage points to 51.3%. An even larger drop, from 21.6% to 5.1%, was noted in the beverage industry. At 73.5%, manufacturers of data processing equipment and manufacturers of optical and electronic products are currently being hit the hardest by supply bottlenecks. The proportion also remains high in the automotive industry, at almost 70%. After recently experiencing a marked easing, furniture manufacturers once again reported a rise in problems procuring materials (19%, up from 10.4%).
