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German Window Market Reports in 2001
¡¾Jan.31, 2002¡¿

German Window Market in 2001

Against the background of continually weakening sales and rising unemployment among the German building industry, the Frankfurt-based Verband der Fenster-und Fassadenhersteller e.V. (association of window and facade manufacturers) expects sales of windows to have dropped by 18.1% last year.

Forecasts for 2002 talk of another drop by about 10%. The association presented this evaluation at an annual press conference in Frankfurt in mid December and used the opportunity to adjust its earlier forecasts. According to Karl Heinz Herbert, the executive director of the association, the downward trend even was even greater than the already lowered expectations. In the beginning of the year, the association had expected the entire market to weaken by only about 8%.

Market Share of Wooden Windows Falls

The market for windows with wooden frames suffered most severely in the current market climate. In 2001, sales overall window sales probably dropped about 22%, while windows with plastic frames suffered a fall of only 18% drop. Windows with aluminium frames and with wood/aluminium combinations did slightly better. The use of aluminium windows for non-residential projects is forecast to drop by 9.7%.

The market share of windows with wooden frames is expected to fall from almost 25% in 1999 to just over 22% in 2001. At the same time, the market share of windows with plastic frames is expected to fall from 55% to 53%. The winner is Aluminium whose market share is likely to grow from 16% to almost 20%.

German Housing Starts

According to data from the German Statistics Office, permits for new flats in eastern Germany totalled at 226,100 units during the period from January to September 2001, down 16.8% on 2000. Out of the total permits, single- and two-family houses accounted for 120,192 units, down by 14.7% in the same period in 2000.