German sheet–rolling companies lost a significant part of their business in 2024, but nevertheless express moderate optimism about the future, according to their interest group Industrieverband Blechumformung - IBU.
540 IBU companies, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, expected 2024. revenue decreased by 12.2% year-on-year, according to[b]Kallanish[/b]. Nevertheless, "despite declining revenues and difficult regional conditions for industrial production, sheet formers are looking to the future," says IBU Managing Director Bernhard Jacobs. Company sentiment has improved slightly since the end of 2024, but there is a silver lining, Jacobs says.
The recent change of the German government and the hope for an improvement in the economic climate that this may bring are weak incentives for rising sentiment. According to Jacobs, politicians seem to have realized the huge obstacles to business related to bureaucracy, energy costs, and taxation. But he warns that "our credibility will soon run out if the government does not act quickly."
Compared to 2019, the year before Covid, sheet shapers lost 15.5% of production and 10.6% of jobs in 2024, according to IBU.
Christian Kel Germany
Kallanish.com
