VDMA India Flash Survey 2.0 on COVID-19 and its impact

Published on : Tuesday 05-05-2020

VDMA India conducted a 2nd flash survey to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the business of our members in India post the extension of lock down.

The survey was conducted during April 21-24, 2020, and is based on the responses across 35 sectors of the mechanical engineering industry. The data has been collected anonymously and any critical information has been dealt with utmost confidentiality. Below mentioned are the two salient outcomes to our survey:

• Majority of the respondents, i.e., 50% are still estimating a period of 3-6 to return back to normal conditions, whereas during our first survey
• 44% of the respondents were expecting 3-6 months to normalcy, and
• During the first survey 22% of the respondents felt that normalcy would take 1-3 months. Whereas this time only 10% feel this way. Hence the extension of lockdown has further impacted the business sentiments.

Results

• 85% of the mechanical engineering companies experience significant negative impact on their business and operations due to COVID-19 where as 11% felt the impact was only limited to specific regions; members in all industrial verticals within VDMA seem to be affected. 94% of the respondents had reported disruptions to their operations during the last survey
• Majority of the respondents feel that managing costs and creating demand would be the key challenges for the industry as a result of COVID-19
• Post lock down respondents prioritise cash flow management and demand creation in order to get on track, and
• When asked about any significant impact to export, the feedback from our members was split equally. And from those facing issues in export, almost 28% reported a decrease of 20-30% in their export, whereas 27% reported a decrease of 10-20% in their export.