According to preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the adjusted order stock in the manufacturing industry increased by 0.8 percent in April 2025, compared to the previous month, March 2025, after adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects. The order stock showed a 4.0 percent increase, calendar-adjusted, compared to the same month of the previous year, April 2024.
The growth in the order stock in April 2025 was largely driven by the developments in the automotive industry, which saw a 2.6 percent increase and the other transport equipment manufacturing, which experienced a 0.8 percent rise.
Domestic orders increased by 0.4 percent in April 2025, while foreign orders rose by 1.1 percent. Manufacturers of investment goods saw a 1.3 percent increase in their order stock, while those of intermediate goods and consumer goods experienced a 0.7 percent decline in their order stock in the same period.
The order stock’s lead time, a measure of the time it would take to complete existing orders at a constant output, remained unchanged at 7.8 months in April 2025, compared to the previous month. However, the lead time for manufacturers of investment goods increased to 10.7 months, from 10.6 months in March 2025, while the lead times for intermediate goods and consumer goods remained at 4.3 months and 3.6 months, respectively. The lead time is calculated as the quotient of the current order stock and the average output of the past 12 months in the relevant industry, according to the Federal Statistical Office.