Export shares of machines from Germany to the EU 2008 - 2020

81% of machine exports from Germany to the EU going to ten EU countries

49% of all machines exports from Germany went to the EU in 2020. Ten EU countries alone accounted for 81% of these exports. This report identifies these ten EU countries, the export quotas to these countries and how they developed from 2008 to 2020. Another report compares the development of industrial production in these ten countries with machine exports from Germany to these countries.

Update November 2nd, 2021 - The global economic crisis of 2008/2009 depressed machine exports from Germany to 78% of their pre-crisis level, a decline by 22%. Exports of machinery to the EU fell even more sharply by 27% to just under 73% of their pre-crisis level. These developments can be seen immediately if the pre-crisis year 2008 is used as a common starting point and the indices are normalized to 2008 equal to 100.

Machine exports from Germany to the rest of the world climbed dynamically from their crisis low and exceeded their pre-crisis level again in 2011. A separate report examines which export regions were the driving force.

Only in 2016 machine exports from Germany to the EU exceeded their pre-crisis level in a wafer-thin manner at 100.3 index points. In 2019 they were 14% above their pre-crisis low - two thirds of the total growth of the machine exports from Germany at 21%.

Only from 2014 and then until 2016 machine exports to the EU grew significantly faster than total machine exports.

In 2020, exports to the EU follow the decline in machinery exports overall. Exports to the ten EU countries, which absorbed 81% of all machinery exports to the EU, are no exception. Their capacity to absorb machinery exports from Germany shows the same development as all EU countries.

The ten EU countries with the highest export shares of machines establish a firm group

These ten EU countries account for 80.6% of machine exports from Germany to the EU. In the order of the export shares of machines from Germany within the EU in 2020, these are the countries

• France (14%), Poland (9.4%), Netherlands (9.3%), Italy (9.0%), UK (8.7%), Austria (8.6%), Czech Republic (6%), Spain (5.5%), Belgium (4.9%) and Hungary (4%).

These export ratios refer to shares of German machinery exports to the entire EU. The export shares of machinery exports as a whole are of course lower. They are for the ten EU countries in 2020:   

• France (7%), Poland (4.6%), Netherlands (4.5%), Italy (4.4%), UK (4.3%), Austria (4.2%), Czech Republic (3.0%), Spain (2.7%), Belgium (2.4%) and Hungary (2.2%).

The export quotas of the ten EU countries for German machinery exports to the EU range from a minimum of 4% (Hungary in 2009 and 2010) to a maximum of 16% (France from 2011 to 2013).

The fluctuations in export shares are small since 2008. The respective export quotas vary by a maximum of two percentage points.

Finally, the group of these ten main exporting countries is stable within the EU. There were only two years in which Hungary had to give way to Sweden as number ten.

Seven of the ten EU countries belong to Western Europe, five of them belong to the group with highest export quotas. Great Britain will not belong to the EU anymore from 20121 on. Three of the ten EU countries belong to Eastern Europe, they rank second, seventh and tenth.