The VDMA Trade Association for Materials Handling and Intralogistics forecast 22.1 billion euros in the spring. "Our indicators did not point to such a strong fourth quarter. So our estimate was a little more conservative. With the revised data, we have achieved an overall result that is well above our expectations," explains Dr. Klaus-Dieter Rosenbach, Chairman of the Executive Board of VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics.

Forecast 2019

Conversely, the association is withdrawing its forecast for the current year. "The 3 percent growth originally announced for this year is unrealistic from a current perspective. On the one hand, the order situation weakened in the first few months of the current year and, on the other hand, we now have a significantly higher starting basis in terms of production volume. If we were to achieve the result of 2018 again, that would be a great success," says Rosenbach. For this reason, the trade association is revising its expectations for this year's growth in the German intralogistics sector to zero.

VDMA President Carl Martin Welcker recently revised the forecast for total mechanical engineering production in 2019 to a real minus of 2 percent in a press conference. The sharp drop in incoming orders could not be completely absorbed by the end of the year, he explained. In the first five months of the current year, order intake in the mechanical engineering sector was 9 percent lower than in the previous year.

In intralogistics incoming orders from January to May 2019 were only 1 per cent down on the same period of the previous year. In addition, there will be a particularly strong 4th quarter of 2018, which will ensure a production surge into the current year. For this reason, the trade association assumes that it will once again achieve the previous year's results of 2018.