Eberhard Veit President of Festo a group of 1

Cent-sept years old, the Krautzberger family Corporation crossed many business cycles. But the current crisis could be fatal. "A year ago, sales progressed by 30. "Since January, it is down 70 ", explains its leader, Holger Weidmann. At the time, this manufacturer of spray guns, based in Eltville, on the banks of the Rhine, was placed in relief in February and waits for a response from the administrator. A typical example of the "Mittelstand" yet, these family businesses renowned for their strength, their ability to innovate and their success in the export.

The brutality of the downturn surprised all Rhine industrial. From 2003 to mid-2008, the sector of capital equipment in Germany saw a third "economic miracle" strong demand from emerging countries and the maintenance of wage costs. But in February, order books declined by 49, after having won 42 in January, according to the Federation of the machine tool (VDMA). The Federation, who still believed in a stagnation in last October, now table a decline of 10 to 20 in 2009. Meeting this week in Hanover, the largest world fair of capital equipment, professionals in the sector want to restore confidence in their activity, but recognize that forecasts are unreliable.

"At the bottom of a bathtub"

"Many customers among component suppliers have reduced their inventories to adapt to the reduced level of production." "This effect should now disappear", provides Hannes Hesse, responsible of the VDMA. Karl Haesgen, Hawe Hydraulik leader, a company of 275 million euros of turnover, also finds some irrational, which slowed the commands. "In renewable energies, the hope that Obama be elected has stopped the market for six months across the Atlantic," he said. Also he believes that the level of sales "hit bottom" and sees it "the first signs of recovery in China and the United States." The fall of orders between January and March, at 40, would be reduced by half in April. Accept, Hans-Jochen Beilke is the company that manages, Ebm Papst, "at the bottom of a bath whose length is unknown". Eberhard Veit, President of Festo, a group of 1.7 billion of turnover in automation techniques, feels unable to say whether sales will decline or rise this year.

The VDMA Federation think therefore that the summer will be decisive. "Everything will depend on the Outlook at this time there." "If companies find a beginning of recovery, it will be for the sector", said Hannes Hesse. In other words, German manufacturers will be spared by the wave of bankruptcies and massive layoffs. But if the commands continue to fall, partial unemployment measures, already affecting nearly 100,000 employees in the machine tool may not be enough.

Frank Stührenberg, Director of sales for Phoenix Contact, a specialist of electrical connections, estimated that avoid dry layoffs "If turnover decline as expected, 15 this year." But in Ebm Papst, for example, we begin to downsize the sites specialized in the car, where you do not see, in the medium term to return to the level of before the crisis. In the meantime, the VDMA expects 25,000 job losses in the sector in 2009 and recognizes that "the number of bankruptcies will naturally increase.