The CEMA Business Barometer not only remains deep in recession, but also falls by a further point to -57 (on a scale of -100 to +100). The current situation and the outlook for the next 6 months are rated similarly poorly by the respondents. The tractor market in particular (-88) experienced a further significant downturn compared to the previous month. A similar drop was recorded for harvesting equipment in July and is now stagnating there (-64).
The slump affects Europe as a whole. Cautiously more optimistic trends can only be seen in Spain and France. The current business situation in BeNeLux is also assessed as relatively better. The first signals of moderately rising expectations for new orders are based on the assumption that dealer stocks are slowly being sold off. The persistence of the economic downturn is nevertheless having a significant impact on production facilities. The use of temporary workers is being significantly reduced (say 61% of the companies) and 21% are also planning to reduce the number of regular employees. The instrument of short-time working is being used by a third of companies. Despite this slowdown in production, the average production period has once again fallen significantly to 2.8 months.
