Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Almost every fourth company in the North Rhine-Westphalian metal and electrical industry sees itself economically endangered in view of tight supply chains, sharp price increases and restricted production processes. That is the result of a survey published on Tuesday by the NRW Metal Industry Association among more than 360 companies with around 122,000 employees.
"Companies are suffering above all from the sometimes exorbitantly increased prices for energy, raw materials and preliminary products," explained the association's general manager, Johannes Pöttering. According to the survey, 88 percent of companies expect a drop in profits this year, and 64 percent a drop in sales. According to their own statements, not even a third of the companies can pass on a sufficient proportion of the price increases to customers.
According to the survey, almost every fourth company is currently planning to downsize. According to Pöttering, many companies are also postponing planned investment projects or savings in research and development. "Both of these will inevitably throw some companies back significantly when it comes to coping with the transformation," Pöttering warned.
The NRW metalworking employers fear a further drastic deterioration in the economic situation if Russian gas supplies are stopped. In this case, almost half of the companies fear effects on their own production, slightly more than half expect deliveries of intermediate goods to be endangered. "The fact that every fourth company expects a complete standstill of production in the event of a gas stop and every second company expects substantial effects is an alarm signal," said Pöttering.
