When Ulrich Ackermann started working for the German machinery industry in 1986, the country’s watchmaking sector had been eaten up by Japanese competition. Advanced equipment makers were sure they were next.
“The watch industry almost completely disappeared from Germany, and there was a fear that this could also happen to the machinery industry. That hasn’t happened but now we have a new situation – China Shock 2.0.
“I think China is a different story. You can’t compare China to Japan,” said Ackermann, who will retire from the Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association in April.
Over the past few years, the association – which represents 3,600 of Germany’s famed small and medium-sized German engineering companies, also known as the Mittelstand – has been raising the alarm about Chinese competitors, which are outstripping German companies in China, Europe and third markets around the world.
“We have many complaints from member companies about unfair competition on the European markets. Unfair competition means, on the one hand, subsidisation and prices which are much below our possibilities.
“Many members say for [that] the price the Chinese sell here on the European market, they cannot buy the materials to produce the machine,” Ackermann, the VDMA’s head of foreign trade, told the Post.
