The VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association was still forecasting EUR 22.1 billion in the spring. "Our indicators did not point to such a strong 4th quarter. Our estimate was therefore somewhat 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 the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association.

Forecast for 2019
Conversely, the association is lowering its forecast for the current year. "The 3% growth originally announced for this year is unrealistic from the current perspective. On the one hand, the order situation has weakened in the first few months of the current year and, on the other, we now have a significantly higher starting point in terms of production volume. If we were to achieve the 2018 result 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 growth.

In a recent press conference, VDMA President Carl Martin Welcker revised the forecast for overall mechanical engineering production in 2019 to a real decline of 2%. He explained that the sharp drop in incoming orders could be completely cushioned by the end of the year. In the first five months of the current year, incoming orders in the mechanical engineering sector were 9% lower than in the previous year.

In contrast, incoming orders in intralogistics from January to May 2019 were only 1% lower than in the same period of the previous year. In addition, the fourth quarter of 2018 was particularly strong in terms of orders, providing a boost to production in the current year. The trade association therefore expects to achieve the previous year's results from 2018 once again.