Material bottlenecks in industry on the decline according to survey by the ifo Institute

As recently as December last year, 50.7 percent of the companies surveyed cited bottlenecks in the procurement of materials. In January, the figure fell to 48.4 percent. Material shortages in industry have thus decreased, according to a recent survey by the ifo Institute.  

"Due to the looming mild winter recession, a stronger decline would have been desirable. Many companies can only work off their high order backlogs slowly," explains Klaus Wohlrabe, head of ifo surveys. 

The situation in the mechanical engineering and automotive sectors is virtually unchanged. Here, three out of four companies are still affected by bottlenecks in raw materials and intermediate products.  Just under a third complain of bottlenecks among food and beverage manufacturers. In the chemical industry, the situation continues to ease, with the proportion of companies affected falling to the lowest level since the beginning of 2021, and just under a quarter reporting shortages of materials. The paper industry is affected to a comparatively low degree, at 13.8 percent. In metal production and processing, the figure has even fallen to 7.4 percent, which is as low as before the shortage crisis began.