Lower prices should eventually encourage energy-intensive manufacturing industries that idled plants in 2022 and 2023 to restart some of them.
Major industrial users mostly hedge gas purchases in the forward market, where year-ahead prices have fallen to an average of around 30-31 euros per megawatt-hour so far in 2024.
All in all, highly volatile data at the turn of the year make it harder to derive a clear trend. What we take from the first batch of hard data for the German economy in 2024 is the picture of an economy that is bottoming out but still stuck between cyclical and structural weakness. Currently, an imminent rebound still looks unlikely, even if there is some vague light at the end of what increasingly looks like a very long tunnel.
Tegn på at det har bunnet ut. Spørsmålet blir jo som vanlig om renten (som vanlig) har blitt holdt for lav for lenge, så man tar en tur innom resesjon og deflasjon før pilene igjen peker opp.
(min utheving)
Production in energy-intensive industrial branches increased by 2.8% in January 2024 from December 2023, after elimination of seasonal and calendar effects. The development in the chemical industry made a significant contribution to this growth. The three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in these industrial branches was 1.4% lower in the period from November 2023 to January 2024 than in the previous three months. Compared with January 2023, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was down 4.3% in January 2024. An analysis on the Production index for energy-intensive industrial branches (only in German) is available on the “Industry, manufacturing” page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website.
Så kort sagt, det begynte å snu oppover i januar, men vi må få data for flere måneder for å se om det faktisk er en opptur nå. Gassprisene var vesentlig høyere i november og desember enn for januar (og var enda lavere i februar og mars).
EDIT
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/manufacturing-pmi
Ikke akkurat hotte tall da.
USA