German sector grows in 2012 News Story - 21 Mar 2013 ( #608 ) - Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1 min read Germany's intralogistics sector grew 7% in 2012, according to the German Engineering Federation's Intralogistics Forum.The sector generated sales of EUR17.9 billion (USD23 billion), compared to EUR16.7 billion (USD21.5 billion) in 2011."Despite the financial and economic crisis in Europe [and] general uncertainty and contrary to the prevailing pessimistic mood, 2012 was again a good year for the intralogistics industry," said Christoph Hahn-Woernle, forum spokesman and managing director of Viastore Systems GmbH. The USA replaced China as Germany's largest customer country in 2012. Exports to the USA grew 36% to EUR986 million (USD1.269 billion). Similar to 2011, France was in second place with EUR818 million (USD1.053 billion). German exports to China dropped 22%, and it is now in third position with EUR791 million (USD926 million).Strongest growth was recorded in the Near and Middle East and Australia, each with 47%, and North America with 37%. Exports to Asia declined.In a global comparison, German intralogistics providers ranked third, pushing Japan back to fourth place. Only intralogistics manufacturers in China and the USA managed to generate higher turnovers. The positive sales development also had an impact on employment figures, with 110,700 people working in German intralogistics in 2012. That is almost 3% more than in 2011.The forum predicts an estimated 3% growth for the German intralogistics sector in 2013.