German construction sees first uptick in five years

German construction companies reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 2.5% in 2025, after five years of successive decline, according to association Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie.  “This ends the long period of recession,” says Tim-Oliver Müller, managing director of Bauindustrie. “But it is not enough to balance the losses of the past years,” he notes. The federation, however, expresses optimism that the trend will continue, and that 2026 will bring another increase by 2.5%. “The order books have refilled somewhat,” Müller says. Order intake at companies went up by 6.8% last year, with a year-end rise of as much as 10.2%, helped by railway projects, pipeline construction and building of data processing centres. “But it will take time until these projects go down in revenue, and it will benefit only few companies initially,” Müller notes. This is why the sentiment in the industry remains modest, according to a recent survey. This sentiment is shared by a manager at a distributor of structural steel, pointing at the overall still ailing economy. “Construction of buildings remains subdued; it would not occur to any Audi or VW to build new warehouses or production halls now,” they tell Kallanish. “The one thing with some perspective is gas power plants, which are subsidised by the government.” Bauindustrie notes that it is mainly railway and computing centres that could lift commercial construction by 4% this year. Residential and public construction are expecte...