The demand from the US, which has been on the rise for several months now, is bringing German companies good increases in export figures. In this context, wlw's B2B procurement barometer for the first quarter of 2023 shows increased searches and enquiries, especially in the metals and metal processing sector as well as in related areas.
Visable determines the demand trends and current market developments in the SME sector for the B2B procurement barometer on a quarterly basis, based on the approximately two million monthly searches on wlw for products, suppliers and services. In the current annual comparison, it is noticeable that the US is in fourth place among the countries with the most search queries, after Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Previously, China was in fourth place behind the DACH region and and even slipped to sixth place behind Turkey in the last quarter. This trend is also confirmed by the Federal Statistical Office - according to which German exports in Q1, especially to the USA, increased significantly.
Strong demand: forgery-proof products, show lasers and cadmium
The increases in product searches are quite interesting: The most frequent searches are for counterfeit-proof products - whether there is a correlation with the drop in exports to China can be assumed, but we leave that to the interpretation of our readers.
The sifnificant percentage increase in searches for engineering companies, PCB assembly and SMD assembly suggests that companies are continuing to invest in developments in the IoT sector and are increasingly seeking digital solutions for various applications. The fact that IoT can connect smart sensors and electronic devices has a massive impact on a wide range of fields, from biomedicine and industry to transport and logistics. For these applications to work, the devices need to be reached through wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular networks, which requires constant change and development in terms of connectivity, remote control and energy efficiency. And this requires the searched components.
