This morning's new industrial orders report for the core EU area generated a headline month-on-month fall of 0.7% in February, which ran counter to expectations for an increase.
However, the report was somewhat better than suggested by that headline reading. Firstly, the January figure was revised up to a month-on-month decline of 0.1% from an originally reported 0.2% decline. Secondly, this data series is often distorted by month-on-month volatility in the transport sector, which tends to include big-ticket items such as aircraft. Stripping that out of the figures left industrial orders showing a 0.5% increase in the core euro area and a bigger 1.8% increase in the EU27 area.
The metals and metals products sub-sector continues to outperform in terms of orders. In the core EU area orders rose by 11.1% year-on-year in February, extending a long period of double-digit year-on-year growth. The figure was an even higher 13% in the EU27 area.
The only sector generating stronger order flow than metals in February was "machinery and equipment", where orders grew by 16.4% and by 14.2% in the core EU and EU27 areas respectively.
Given the obvious overlaps between metal products and machinery, this only points to continued strength ahead for the metals sector in Europe.
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