Welding is Germany's Top Export and Revenue Generator

WELDING TECHNOLOGY IS A GERMAN EXPORT AND REVENUE GENERATOR

Whether in bridges, football stadiums, bicycles, cars or even in cooking pots, shopping trolleys, irons and even braces: German joining, cutting and coating technology can be found in many buildings, products and everyday objects. At the same time, Germany is also a major manufacturer of welding equipment, devices and additives. In 2022, the production value of German welding technology was 4.11 billion euros. This is 10.4 percent more than in the previous year. At the same time, this figure is significantly higher than the pre-pandemic value (2019: 3.85 billion euros) and is thus an indicator of the positive development of the industry.

Sales of welding consumables and auxiliary materials increased particularly in 2022 with 27 percent. The 5.9 percent increase in soldering and welding machines must be taken with a grain of salt. While automatic machines for arc or plasma welding of metals increased by an impressive 52.5 per cent, sales of equipment for resistance welding of metals fell by 18.8 per cent.

Strong export growth for German welding technology in 2022

Welding technology made in Germany is in demand worldwide. Welding and cutting technology goods were exported for a total of appr. 2.8 billion euros in 2022. Soldering and welding machines were leading with 1.741 billion euros (plus 15.4 per cent), followed by parts for welding equipment and apparatus with 640.6 million euros (plus 8.5 per cent) and welding consumables and auxiliary materials with 389.7 million euros (plus 20.9 per cent).

These are the biggest importers of German welding technology:

USA: € 440.8 million (+ 18.9 per cent)
China: € 346.4 million (- 3.9 %)
Poland: € 137.6 million (+ 8.6 %)
Netherlands: € 133.2 million (+ 10.4 %)
Hungary: € 129.8 million (+ 106.2 %)
Italy: € 123.5 million (+ 11.2 %)
France: € 112.2 million (+ 9.3 %)
Austria: € 97.9 million (+ 6.2 %)
Czech Republic: € 91.9 million (- 2.1 %)
Mexico: € 81.5 million (+ 37.2 %)

The three nations USA, China and Poland alone account for 33.4 % of the total welding technology exports. Products worth € 1.011 billion were shipped to the 27 EU countries - an increase of 15.7 percent. The reason for the particularly strong export growth to Hungary is probably due to the investment subsidies of the local government, which supports companies in modernising their plants.

(Source: DVS)