According to preliminary figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday, the real order backlog for Germany’s industrial sector increased by 1.6 percent in March 2026 compared to February, after adjusting for seasonality and calendar effects. Furthermore, when comparing the figure to March 2025, the adjusted order backlog saw an increase of 8.4 percent.
This positive trend was observed across all economic sectors. The primary contributors to the overall growth were the construction of miscellaneous vehicles (including aircraft, ships, trains, and military vehicles), which rose by 1.5 percent compared to the previous month (seasonally and calendar-adjusted), and the production of data processing equipment, electronic, and optical goods, which grew by 3.8 percent.
More specifically, domestic orders increased by 1.4 percent in March 2026 compared to February, while the backlog of foreign orders rose by 1.7 percent.
Further breakdowns showed that capital goods manufacturers saw a 1.3 percent increase in their order backlog from the preceding month. Intermediate goods manufacturers recorded a 2.0 percent increase, and consumer goods manufacturers posted a 5.0 percent rise.
In terms of coverage-the period needed to use up the current backlog-the order backlog reached 8.8 months in March 2026 (compared to 8.6 months in February). For capital goods manufacturers, the coverage rose to 12.2 months (up from 12.0 months in February). Intermediate goods manufacturers saw coverage reach 4.6 months (up from 4.5 months in February), and consumer goods manufacturers’ coverage increased to 4.0 months (from 3.8 months in February).