According to a recent report from CEMA, the general business climate index for the agricultural machinery industry in Europe has further improved but continues to remain deeply negative at -47 points (on a scale of -100 to +100) after having its sharpest drop since the financial crisis of 2008-09.

The current improvement of the business climate is primarily the result of less negative future expectations. Last month 75% of industry representatives were expecting a decreasing turnover, whereas in June, 56% of the industry representatives expect a decreasing turnover within the coming six months.

Restrictions in the course of COVID-19 are still in place, but have been further reduced along the way to the end customer. Among all the companies participating in the survey, the average production capacity utilization is 83% of the level before COVID-19. Conditions on the distribution side have improved the most compared to last month. Overall, however, the distribution side is still causing slightly more problems than the supplier side, which is now again able to supply at 88% of the level before COVID-19.

With regard to the European market, the expectations of the survey participants have also improved, but there is still a clear majority of participants expecting turnover decreases from all regions except Scandinavia.