The general business climate index for the agricultural machinery industry in Europe has broadly continued its sideways movement at a positive level after the sharp declines in the course of the Russian war against Ukraine. Current business in particular appears to remain stable, while the share of survey participants with growth expectations has decreased slightly. As a result, in October the index dropped marginally to 12 points (on a scale of -100 to +100).
Price increases and bottlenecks on the supplier side continue to challenge the industry, however some slight easing is observable. Currently, 28% of the companies are planning a temporarily production stop due to shortages in the coming four weeks.
The regional breakdown on the market side indicates that the German market is losing some momentum, but the confidence level for the French market remains strong, in addition, in some markets such as Scandinavia and Switzerland even an upward trend can be observed. Moreover, current dealer stocks of both new and used machinery remain very low across Europe and may still be below optimal levels in most markets.
