For the year 2013 as a whole, order bookings in the German machine tool industry recorded a minus of 6%, with domestic orders down by 7%, and export bookings by 6%, according to VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) in Frankfurt.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, order bookings in the industry fell by 6% compared to the final quarter of 2012. Domestic orders were up by 3%, while export orders were 11% below the previous year’s figure.

“So this was a rather unspectacular end to the year for the German machine tool industry”, comments Dr. Wilfried Sch�fer, Executive Director of VDW.

The year’s final quarter saw a minor setback in regard to a stable uptrend in order bookings. Nonetheless, orders in the second half of 2013 showed a definite plus. Forming technology, the guarantor of success for the development of production output last year, lost 25% of its order bookings in the year’s fourth quarter.

“This category is taking a short breather, and the big projects of the automotive industry, which is the main customer grouping, have been completed for the time being”, says Sch�fer. In 2013 as a whole, order bookings for forming technology were down by 2%. Order bookings for metal-cutting technology fell by 8%.

In 2014, the sector is expecting order bookings to rise again, by around 10%, set to come in equal proportions from Germany and abroad, VDW adds