On Wednesday (June 12th) German machinery and equipment manufacturing industry association (hereinafter referred to as VDMA) chief economist RalphWiechers said in a statement, although the share has decreased compared with 2011 (16.5% in 2011), the German machinery and equipment exports in 2012 accounted for the global machinery export GDP is still ranked first, 16.1%. Ranked second and third respectively for the United States and China, with a share of 12.1% and 11.2% respectively. Japan ranks fourth with 11% share.

In spite of the deterioration of the economic environment, the total value of the international trade in machinery and equipment increased by nearly 8% in 2012, and the total value of the global machinery exports rose to about 931 billion euros. Among them, the weaker growth is the EU countries, the overall growth of only 1.3%. German machinery exports to other EU countries increased by 6.4%, higher than their overall export growth rate (5.1%).

For several years, the European Union has gradually lost its leading position in the global machinery export market. In 2009, after the economic crisis, the EU 27 countries' machinery export market share shrank from about 33% to about 29%. As far as the export of all industries is concerned, the global export value has increased by 54% since 2009, while the European Union has only increased by 32%. (this manuscript uses a real exchange rate of $1 =0.7490 euros)