The general business climate index of the agricultural machinery industry in Europe has deteriorated significantly for the first time since autumn. While current business is still maintaining its stability, future expectations have dropped as sharply as they last did in May 2016.
Based on the strong order intake in the past, the volume of orders is still very high (corresponding to a production period of 3.1 months). However, the current order intake is weakening and for the coming six months, a further significant slowdown in incoming orders is expected.
For the segments of tractors and harvesting equipment, not only the future expectation but also the current business evaluation seems already to solidify at a comparatively much lower level. Meanwhile, future expectations of livestock equipment manufacturers have collapsed dramatically. Accordingly, uncertainty among component manufacturers has increased again.
The regional breakdown reveals again France as one of the few stable growth markets within Europe. Italy, Spain and Austria remain positive, but have lost some dynamics. The German market continues at low confidence level. The UK appears to be stabilizing in the negative to flat range, after the strong deterioration in the previous month. For Romania, Belgium and the Netherlands, there is again a clear majority of participants expecting turnover decreases.
