BERLIN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- German industrial orders rebounded 4.4 percent month-on-month in September, driven largely by a sharp rise in automotive orders following two months of sluggish activity, official data showed Thursday.
The increase in orders followed a revised 10.1-percent decline in August, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
The statistics authority attributed the rebound largely to a 10.5-percent increase in orders in the automotive industry. In the previous two months, orders and production in the sector had remained at low levels partly due to factory holidays and production adjustments.
However, the September rebound in automotive orders did little to ease concerns over weak demand in Germany's car industry, as the data released Wednesday by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) showed. Total orders received by German carmakers fell 14 percent year-on-year in October, as foreign orders declined 16 percent while domestic orders remained unchanged from a year earlier.
In the first 10 months of the year, Germany produced 3.37 million passenger cars, down 4 percent year-on-year and 15 percent below the level recorded in the same period in 2019, said the association.
Destatis data also showed industrial orders rose by just 0.2 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, with an increase of only 0.1 percent when large-scale orders were excluded, pointing to continued weakness in underlying industrial demand.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said in a statement that industrial orders remained volatile due to large public-sector contracts and orders brought forward amid the war in the Middle East.
Increased government spending, particularly on defense and infrastructure, has helped support industrial demand in Europe's largest economy this year, although large contracts have also contributed to sharp month-to-month fluctuations in order figures.
Nevertheless, the ministry said orders had remained broadly stable in the third quarter and expected industrial activity to pick up in the final quarter of 2026.
