Branches Of Industry : Germany

With 660,000 employees at the end of 1996 and an annual turnover of DM 243 billion, the automobile industry is one of the most important branches of the German economy. Germany is the world’s third largest producer of automobiles (after the United States and Japan). Of the 4.8 million motor vehicles that were manufactured in Germany in 1996, about 59 percent were exported.

The automobile industry has a long tradition in the new federal states as well. The models produced under the old GDR regime had no chance when faced with international competition after the country was united, however, and their production was phased out. Several large automobile manufacturers from western Germany have meanwhile opened new plants in Saxony and Thuringia. The western German automobile industry has invested about DM 10 billion in the eastern part of the country. Once production is in full swing, about 350,000 cars a year will leave the modern assembly lines in the new federal states - twice as many as in the former GDR.