Germany’s industrial potential: value added, resilience and strategic advantages

German industry is operating in a highly dynamic global environment characterised by developments such as geopolitical uncertainties and international conflicts, protectionism and price increases for key industrial inputs. Against this backdrop, the study aims to empirically analyse the existing strengths and future development opportunities of German industry in terms of sectors, topics, technologies and markets, to examine opportunities and challenges, and to identify those value chains and areas that are particularly important for German industry and the German economy and in which strategic independence and resilience must be ensured. On this basis, recommendations for industrial policy action will be developed.

The project is carried out in a research alliance between the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) and the IAW. The IAW describes the current strengths of German industry, analyses the resilience of international value chains and examines possible scenarios for foreign trade.