The general business climate index for the agricultural machinery industry in Europe remains in negative territory showing little change compared to September after the sharp declines of the previous months. In October, the index decreased from -31 point to -32 points (on a scale of -100 to +100).
The survey confirms once again that the direct customers of the manufacturers, the dealers, are not able to pass on their numerous orders to the end customers and have thus slid from undersupply to record-high oversupply. According to the survey, the dealer stocks are now in most European markets higher than in the year 2019, which went down in history due to high dealer stock levels.
Accordingly, there is not one single European market for which a majority of survey participants would have positive turnover expectations. The strongest declines are expected for the markets in Central and Eastern Europe. France remains ahead of Germany in the market ranking.
Only 20% of the survey participants give a good evaluation of the current business, nearly 60% expect their turnover to decline in the next six months and with a view to the coming order intake (an indicator which is not considered in the calculation of the overall barometer index) nearly 70% expect further declines.
