German manufacturers currently have enough orders to produce for a record four-and-a-half months, according to a poll by Germany’s ifo Institute (Munich; www.ifo.de/en).

“We’ve seen nothing like it since we first asked this question in 1969,” said Timo Wollmershäuser, head of forecasts at the thinktank. “In recent months, manufacturers couldn’t process incoming orders because they lacked key intermediate products and raw materials.”

He said manufacturing output could rise sharply over the next few months if bottlenecks ease. “That in turn ought to give economic output a big boost.”

Ifo told Plasteurope.com that companies that make plastics and rubber products have three months of work on their books – the highest level since Q2 2018 – a mark where it has remained for the past three quarters.

It noted that the order backlog is particularly large in the car industry, which includes manufacturers and suppliers, and equates to an estimated eight months of production. Manufacturers of machinery and equipment reported orders for around a half year of work, the institute said.