EU Exports of Machinery in 2025: Q3 data confirms an Uncertain Outlook

Overall stable result in Q3-2025 (-0.3%), confirming the economic weakness of the first part of the year

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Industrial equipment Uncertainty Conjuncture Global economic trends
Stampa

The preliminary estimates of foreign trade of EU countries for the third quarter of 2025, available in the ExportPlanning Information System, confirm the weakness of EU Exports of Machinery1.

European machinery exports remain weak...

In the most recent quarter (Q3-2025), EU exports of machinery showed weak year-on-year growth (-0.3% in euro terms), confirming the trend seen in the first half of the year (-0.8%).
In the first nine months of the year, EU exports of machinery decreased by 0.6% year-on-year, thus confirming the persistent uncertainty of the current economic environment.

... but with significant differences at the sector level.

The table below shows the 2024-2025 performance of EU machinery exports by sector. The sectoral picture shows varying results.

EU Exports of Machinery: Year-over-Year % changes in euro

Year-over-Year % changes in euro
Year 2024 H1-2025 Q3-2025E Jan-Sep 2025
Semiconductor manufacturing machines +12.0 +16.1 +13.8 +15.3
Food machinery + 3.1 - 4.3 - 0.6 - 3.1
Metalworking machine tools - 3.3 -11.1 - 7.3 - 9.9
Packaging machinery + 6.5 + 3.6 + 3.4 + 3.5
Extrusion machinery - 4.2 - 8.8 - 0.7 - 6.0
Machine tools for hard materials - 9.3 -13.7 - 6.6 -11.4
Textile machinery -16.8 - 6.5 - 1.7 - 5.0
Machines for metal processing + 0.7 - 6.4 -11.0 - 7.9
Paper-making machinery - 9.1 - 9.6 - 9.8 - 9.6
Printing machines - 8.6 + 3.2 - 4.3 + 0.5
Other special purpose machinery + 6.4 + 1.4 - 4.1 - 0.5
TOTAL + 1.7 - 0.8 - 0.3 - 0.6
Source: ExportPlanning - Data Hub - Quarterly Trade Data, EU Trade Datamart

Analyzing the data for the first three quarters of the year for EU exports by mechanical engineering sector, the following sectors are found:

  • still in positive territory:
    • semiconductor manufacturing machines2: after a 12 percentage point Y-o-Y growth in 2024, in the first nine months of the current year, EU exports in this sector recorded a 15.3 percentage point Y-o-Y increase, which is definitely the best performance within the industry examined;
    • packaging machinery3: after the 6.5 percentage point Y-o-Y growth seen in 2024, in the January-September 2025 period, EU exports in the sector recorded a 3.5 percentage point year-on-year increase;
  • in a context of weakness the following sectors:
    • printing machinery4: despite showing an improvement compared to the decline reported last year (-8.6%), in the first nine months of the current year, EU exports in the sector showed a weak performance overall (+0.5%), worsening in the most recent quarter (-4.3%);
    • other special-purpose machinery5: in the first nine months of 2025, EU exports in the sector marked a standstill, with particular reference to the most recent quarter (-4.1%);
  • The following sectors, however, are in negative territory:
    • machine tools for hard materials6: the first nine months of the year confirmed the difficult phase of EU exports in the sector, down more than 11 percentage points year-on-year, after a fall of more than 9% last year;
    • metalworking machine tools7: the first three quarters of 2025 saw a worsening of the already unfavorable combined trend of EU exports in the sector, down approximately 10 percentage points year-on-year;
    • paper-making machinery8: the year-on-year decline of almost 10 percentage points (current euros) in the January-September 2025 period confirms the difficult phase of EU exports in the sector, already down by over 9 percentage points on average last year;
    • metalworking machinery9: in the first nine months of 2025, EU exports in the sector showed a trend decline of almost 8 percentage points, worsening compared to the 2024 average;
    • extrusion machinery10: the trend decline in euro values of 6 percentage points in the first nine months of the current year confirms the Y-o-Y decline already seen in 2024 (-4.2%);
    • textile machinery11: the Y-o-Y decline in the first nine months of 2025 (-5% in euro values) adds to the decline of almost 17 percentage points already seen last year, reflecting a still penalizing economic context;
    • food machinery12: finally, it is worth highlighting the worsening economic situation for EU exports in this sector, which in 2024 had maintained a positive Y-o-Y trend (+3.1 in euro values) and which, instead, in the first nine months of the current year recorded a similarly severe decline.

The importance of monitoring market conditions
at a "product-specific" level

The most recent dynamics highlight an overall uncertant context for EU exports of machinery.
However, the high heterogeneity of the results at a sector level suggests to an exporting company the strategic utility of continuous monitoring of market conditions, in terms of demand and dynamics of the main competitors for the strategic business area of reference, in order to allow it to best support its international positioning.

With the aim of allowing constant monitoring of foreign markets of reference at a "product-specific" level, ExportPlanning provides Market Insights, a new series of information services aimed at specifically supporting the market intelligence and budgeting processes of exporting companies.

1) See the related industry description.
2) See the related sector description.
3) See the related sector description.
4) See the related sector description.
5) See the relevant sector description.
6) See the relevant sector description.
7) See the relevant sector description.
8) See the relevant sector description.
9) See the relevant sector description.
10) See the relevant sector description.
11) See the relevant sector description.
12) See the relevant sector description.