On Monday, the first day of the country's largest manufacturing industry exhibition, Hannover Messe, Germany's leading industrial organizations demonstrated caution and uncertainty in 2026.
The Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI), the United Manufacturing Industry Organization, predicted a gradual recovery in 2026 at the beginning of the year. Now, given the war in Iran and its consequences, it expects annual stagnation, its president Peter Leibinger said at a press conference at the beginning of the exhibition.
He noted that global industrial production increased last year, but in Germany it decreased by 1.5%. Callanish heard him say at the conference that plant use has remained at the long-term average for 11 quarters, which is the longest period of drought to date. "At least, there is a silver lining, as the number of orders increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2025," he added.
BDI participated in the conference jointly with the ZVEI Electrical and Digital Industry Association and the VDMA Mechanical Engineering Association. They unanimously complained about the burden of excessive bureaucracy in Germany and Europe, which discourages companies from investing in their home country, although they would like to.
"An American senator once told me that we Europeans set the rules for technology before we develop it; Americans develop it first and then think about regulation," said Bertram Kavlat, president of the VDMA. He spoke about a recent visit to the divisions of German companies located in Mexico, which are on standby to make investments in their enterprises. "So the revenue will flow to Mexico, not Germany," he said.
He noted that after Covid, the German engineering industry is experiencing a shortage of investments in the amount of 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) per year. "The capacity of any plant without investments now will be unavailable in ten years, and this is a growing process," he warned.
Author: Christian Kel
Kallanish.com
