The one-sided dependency on investment activity repeatedly subjects the ME industry to pronounced cyclic fluctuations in demand. The client companies’ investment decisions are a response to actual or expected changes in capacity utilisation, earnings, financing costs or general market conditions. These aspects develop in parallel for large areas of the economy, leading to cumulative processes. The resultant fluctuations in investment activity, which are more pronounced for equipment than for other business activities, have a decisive effect on the cyclical up-, and downturns of the economy as a whole. Consequently, the ME industry is almost inevitably at the core confronted by.
