German robotics and automation sector faces faster decline
9 June 2025 
Revenues in Germany’s robotics and automation sector are expected by drop by 10% this year, to €14.5bn, according to the latest forecast from the sector’s trade body, VDMA Robotics + Automation. The is a bigger decline than the 9% that the VDMA was predicting in January.
The sharpest fall is likely in the “automated solutions” sector, with revenues expected to plummet by 15% to €7.7bn in 2025. Robotics revenues are expected to decline by 5% to €3.7bn (compared to 3% forecast in January), while the machine vision sector is expected to remain static with revenues of around €3.1bn.
“The revenue weakness announced at the start of the year has been confirmed in our current forecast for 2025,” says VDMA Robotics + Automation chairman, Dr Dietmar Ley. “Growth prospects are currently clouded in all sub-sectors through the end of the year.”
The key causes of the sector’s problems include postponed investment plans due to current geopolitical tensions, US tariffs and increasing competitive pressure from Asian rivals. VDMA reports that companies in the German robotics and automation sector are working hard to strengthen their competitiveness.
“Robotics and automation are key technologies without which industrial production in a high-wage country like Germany will no longer be conceivable in the future,” says Ley. “Politics and business must now take concerted action to reduce location-based disadvantages in international competition and set the course for renewed growth.”
VDMA has issued a Robotics Action Plan for Europe that sets out three main demands:
- making more venture capital available for start-ups and scale-ups;
- establishing a roadmap for competitiveness, focusing on scaling up European innovation; and
- swift implementation of investment support announced by the new German government.
