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Export shares of machines from Germany to the EU 2008 - 2022

84% of machine exports from Germany to the EU going to ten EU countries

45% of all machines exports from Germany went to the EU in 2022. Ten EU countries alone accounted for 84% of these exports. This report identifies these ten EU countries, the export quotas to these countries and how they developed from 2008 to 2022. Another report compares the development of industrial production in these ten countries with machine exports from Germany to these countries.

Update May 24th, 2023 - 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.


The fact that the countries of the EU did not act as draught horses is shown in the diagram.

Machine exports from Germany altogether and to the EU from 2008 to 2022.

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 2020, exports to the EU followed the decline in machinery exports overall.

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

These ten EU countries account for 84% of machine exports from Germany to the EU. In the order of the export shares of machines from Germany within the EU in 2022, these are the countries

  • France (16%), Italy (11%), Poland (10%), The Netherlands (10%), Austria (9.5%), Czech Republic (7%), Spain (6%), Belgium (5%), Hungary (5%) and Sweden (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 2022:   

 

  • France (7%), Italy 5,0%), Poland (4.5%), The Netherlands (4.5%), Austria (4.3%), Czech Republic (3.0%), Spain (2.7%), Belgium (2.5%), Hungary (2.%) and Sweden (2.0%).
The export shares of German machines to ten EU countries from 2008 to 2022.

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).


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 don't belong to the EU anymore from 2021 on. In 2022, three of the ten EU countries belong to Eastern Europe, they rank third, sixth and nineth.