Munich – In April 2021, manufacturers of Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies in Germany were able to increase their incoming orders by 69 percent in real terms compared to the previous year. Orders from Germany increased by 55 percent and from abroad by as much as 80 percent. In April, 158 percent more orders came from the euro countries, while the noneuro countries increased their orders by 22 percent. Turnover also increased by 9.5 per cent compared to the previous year.
“After pandemic-related sharp drops in orders and sales in 2020, the order books of many companies are gradually filling up again,” said Elgar Straub, Managing Director VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies. “However, international travel restrictions as well as a still difficult pandemic situation in many countries of the world continue to pose a major challenge. In addition, there are currently the exploding raw material prices with massive delivery delays for primary products, still severely restricted and very expensive transport conditions and a considerable shortage of packaging materials.”
Export markets down in 2020, improvement in sight
The manufacturers of Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies were able to export machines worth 788 million euros in 2020, which was 9.5 percent less than in 2019 (872 million euros). The most important export market in 2020 was Poland, followed by the US and France. Exports to Poland increased by 69 per cent to 89 million euros in 2020, whereas exports to the United States decreased by 12 per cent to 77 million euros. Likewise, exports to France fell by 8 per cent to 68 million euros.
Poland remained the most important export market for the industry in the first quarter of 2021, followed by France and the US. In particular, exports within the EU developed positively in the first quarter of 2021, increasing by 3 per cent to 90 million euros.
