June 6, 2025 13:06

Despite a difficult 2024, there are early signs of recovery in 2025 for German manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery and equipment.

According to the latest figures released by the sector’s division within VDMA, order intake — adjusted for inflation — fell by 21% last year compared to 2023, while sales declined by 19%. These results are even worse than the projections published last autumn, and they come on the heels of an already weak 2023, when orders had dropped by 22%, although revenues had still managed to grow slightly.

“We have had three very long years in which hardly any new orders were placed, and companies were pushed to their limits,” commented Ulrich Reifenhäuser, chairman of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association.
In response, German manufacturers have widely adopted short-time work schemes to mitigate the effects of declining demand and, increasingly, have resorted to layoffs.
“It is all the more gratifying that we are emerging from the first quarter of 2025 with a glimmer of hope,” added Reifenhäuser. “Orders have picked up noticeably again (price-adjusted up 5% compared to the same period last year); only sales are still lagging behind, as expected, with a decrease of 17%.”

According to the association’s estimates, revenue for the current year could remain flat — under the most favorable scenario — if order volumes continue to recover in the coming months. In a less optimistic outlook, with delayed investment decisions pushing revenues into 2026, the industry could face an additional 5% decline in annual turnover. All of this comes against the backdrop of uncertainty caused by U.S. trade policy direction under the Trump administration.

“We currently assume that the bottom has been reached in terms of order intake,” noted Thorsten Kühmann, managing director of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association. “The industry will work its way up from this level in small steps over the next few months. This means that the K trade fair in October is coming at just the right time,” Kühmann continued. “Companies will be able to present their solution expertise and innovations to a hopefully investment-friendly crowd of customers.”

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