German industry: order backlog keeps growing – only the car sector lags
Germany's manufacturing order backlog rose 0.5 percent in August from July and 10.7 percent year on year. The car industry was the only sector named with a decline.
Symbolic image · Photo: ChristianSchd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Germany's real order backlog in manufacturing rose 0.5 percent in August 2026 from the previous month, adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, according to preliminary data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Monday. Compared with August 2025, the backlog was 10.7 percent higher on a calendar-adjusted basis. Unfilled domestic orders grew 0.4 percent and foreign orders 0.5 percent.
The increase was driven mainly by machinery (+0.5 percent), other vehicle manufacturing including aircraft, ships, trains and military vehicles (+0.3 percent), and computer, electronic and optical products (+1.4 percent). The car industry was the only sector named with a decline, its backlog falling 0.4 percent. By main group, backlogs rose 0.2 percent for capital goods and 1.1 percent for intermediate goods, and fell 0.1 percent for consumer goods.
The so-called range of the backlog was unchanged at 9.0 months. It shows how long companies could keep producing with existing orders alone, without new business. It stood at 12.6 months for capital goods makers, 4.6 months for intermediate goods and 4.3 months for consumer goods.