In 2015, the UK was the fourth-largest foreign market EUR 7.2bn (USD 7.96bn) for Germany’s mechanical engineering sector, behind the USA EUR 16.8bn (USD 18.58bn), China EUR 16bn (USD 17.69bn) and France EUR 9.8bn (USD 10.84bn).
“Great Britain’s decision to leave the EU is a warning signal for companies. The Brexit will cost Europe as an industrial location a great deal of confidence among investors,” said Thilo Brodtmann, VDMA chief executive. “It won’t be long before our machinery exports to the UK start to fall off noticeably. It is [also] completely unclear what will happen to companies with UK subsidiaries.
“The EU must now contain the damage and keep the period of uncertainty as short as possible. Europe’s companies need security to plan ahead and a reliable roadmap for the exit. For export-oriented companies, fragmentation of Europe would be the nightmare scenario.”
Brodtmann however has no doubt about the future viability of the EU.
