In the first quarter of 2011, order bookings in the German machine tool industry indicated three-digit growth rates. Orders in the January-March period rose by 130 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.



Domestic and export demand developed well-nigh identically: order bookings from the German domestic market were up by 127 percent, while demand from abroad climbed by 132 percent, both compared to Q1 2010.

"The sector has picked up speed very much faster and more vigorously than we anticipated back in the autumn", said VDW executive director Dr. Wilfried Sch�fer. "This is now showing up spectacularly in the sales figures, with a steep rise of 45 percent in the year's first quarter: with these superlative results order bookings are rapidly approaching the all-time high of 2007; sales are as yet a good tenth below the peak level of 2008," he added.



The good performance is also reflected in the capacity utilization level in the German machine tool industry, which at 93.8 percent in April of this year had almost returned to the figure last achieved in the boom year of 2008. The order backlog, too, at 8.7 months in February of this year, is not far below the peak figure of 2008, according to the VDW statement.