In the third quarter of the current year, order bookings in the German machine tool industry increased by eight percent year on year, according to the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW). Given the dominance of the German industry in the mechanical engineering sector, data released by the VDW are seen as a barometer for general business conditions in the EU.
In the German machine tool industry in the third quarter of this year, domestic orders were down 14 percent, while export orders increased by 22 percent, both compared to the same quarter of last year. In the first nine months of 2016, order bookings were up by 11 percent compared to the preceding year. In the given period, domestic orders showed a slight rise of two percent, whereas export orders were up by 16 percent.