In March 2025, the seasonally and calendar-adjusted order intake in the processing industry increased by 3.6 percent compared to February 2025, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday. Excluding large orders, the order intake was 3.2 percent higher than in the previous month. In the less volatile quarterly comparison, the order intake in the first quarter of 2025 was 2.3 percent lower than in the fourth quarter of 2024, without large orders it increased by 0.5 percent. In February 2025, the order intake remained unchanged compared to January 2025 after revision of the preliminary results (preliminary result confirmed).
According to Destatis, many economic sectors contributed to the increase in order intake in the processing industry in March 2025, particularly the manufacture of electrical equipment (seasonally and calendar-adjusted +14.5 percent compared to the previous month), the machinery industry (+5.3 percent), the Other Vehicle Manufacturing (aircraft, ships, trains, military vehicles; +13.0 percent), the automotive industry (+2.5 percent) and the pharmaceutical industry (+17.3 percent).
The order intake for investment goods increased by 3.7 percent in March 2025 compared to the previous month, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The order intake for intermediate goods and consumer goods also increased, by 2.5 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.
Foreign orders increased by 4.7 percent according to the data of the Federal Agency. Orders from the Eurozone increased by 8.0 percent, while orders from outside the Eurozone increased by 2.8 percent. Domestic orders increased by 2.0 percent.
The real turnover in the processing industry was 2.2 percent higher than in the previous month in March 2025, according to provisional data, seasonally and calendar-adjusted. In comparison to the same month in the previous year (March 2024), the turnover was 0.4 percent lower after calendar adjustment. For February 2025, the turnover increased by 0.3 percent after revision of the preliminary results compared to January 2025 (preliminary value: 0.2 percent).