Wolfgang Weber, Chairman of the ZVEI Board of Management, expects that the industry will be able to make up for last year's corona-related production losses of minus six percent as early as this year. The business climate in the industry is stable, but at the same time there are still risks to the improved forecast and future economic development: "The biggest challenge at the moment is the shortage of materials and logistical problems, such as delays in the supply chain," explains Weber.

According to the association, incoming orders in April of this year were 57 percent higher than the corresponding figure for the previous year. At the same time, production and sales increased by 27 and 29 percent, respectively. These high rates of increase are, of course, also attributable to base effects. For example, in April 2020, the first COVID lockdown month, companies posted a sharp drop in orders. However, the declines at that time have now been made up.

Over the entire period from January to April 2021, new orders exceeded their year-earlier level by 24 percent. Production here was up eight percent. At 63.9 billion euros, aggregate industry revenues in the first four months were almost nine percent higher than a year ago.

The ZVEI also expects the increasing decarbonization to have a positive impact on further economic development. Without electrification and thus electrical engineering, climate protection, sustainability and a CO2-neutral world would not be feasible. The "Climate Pact Germany" currently being discussed by politicians is an important initiative. However, further concrete measures are needed to achieve the goal of climate neutrality. "If we want to save CO2, we have to exhaust all technological possibilities to do so. We're not really doing that at the moment," Weber explains. "We must now pick up the pace, quickly adopt and implement urgently needed reforms - otherwise the resolutions will remain nothing more than empty climate promises."