FRANKFURT – In April, German electronics industry exports dropped 20% to €13.5 billion compared to April 2019, according to ZVEI.

"We recently had such a serious setback as a result of the financial crisis in the first half of 2009," said ZVEI chief economist Andreas Gontermann, Ph.D. "After all, the minus was a good 10 percentage points smaller than that of aggregate deliveries."

In the first four months of 2020, aggregate industry exports came to €66.7 billion, down 6.2% year-over-year.

April imports of electrotechnical and electronic products to Germany were down 16.7% year-over-year to €12.9 billion. From January to April, they dropped 6.7% to €60.9 billion.

German electrical exports to the eurozone countries shrank disproportionately in April, dropping 29.5% year-over-year to €3.7 billion. Deliveries to France were down 42% to €624 million, those to Belgium 36.8% to €287 million. Exports to Spain and Italy fell 34% to €335 million and 28.3% to €565 million, respectively. In April, the export business with Austria was down 16.5% to €578 million. Deliveries to the Netherlands declined similarly (down 16% to €722 million).

From January through April, electrical exports to the euro zone fell 11.5% year-over-year to €20.6 billion.

At minus 15.7% (€9.8 billion), electrical exports to countries outside the euro area were down in April only half as much as those to the common currency area.

"That was mainly due to China," said Gontermann. "Here, the recovery that began in March continued in April."

Exports to the Middle Kingdom rose in April compared to the previous year by 17.5% to €2.1 billion. Exports to Poland were up 2.3% to €715 million.

In contrast, exports to the UK plummeted 30.2% in April to €462 million. Exports to the US dropped 25.4% to €1.2 billion. Exports to the Czech Republic decreased 16.2% to €675 million. Exports to Japan and South Korea were down 14.8% to €220 million and 5% to €214 million, respectively.

In the first four months of 2020, deliveries to third countries amounted to €46.1 billion down 3.7% year-over-year.

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