The German steel and metal industry association WSM said that in the first three month of this year, German steel and metal processing companies saw their production decrease by 2.1% when compared to last year. In the first quarter of this year, domestic sales were 5.2% lower when compared to last year but exports increased by 1.5% year on year. New orders for the first quarter 2013 saw a decrease of 4.4% with domestic orders only down slightly but new orders from abroad fell by almost 10.7%. The WSM pointed out that the negative annual growth rates were due to strong performance in the first half of 2012 which had weakened in the second half. If compared to the last quarter of 2012, all performance indicators show improvement.
Source:
http://www.yieh.com/2.2.01.01stainlesssteelnews.aspx?no=64705&division=A6
