Swiss tech sector continues to suffer from shrinking demand
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss machine and engineering industry remains caught in a downward spiral. In the current year, the number of orders have continued to fall, as has turnover.
The industry association Swissmem assumes that the order situation will deteriorate even further. The main reason for this is the US tariff hike at the beginning of August.
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In the second quarter of 2025, the machine industry suffered from persistently weak global demand. As Swissmem reported on Tuesday, sales fell by 2.2% and incoming orders by 4.5% between April and June compared to the same period in the previous year.
The order volume even fell by 13% compared to the first quarter. After Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”, a more severe downturn set in. The number of employees in the industry fell by around 3,100 to 324,600, according to the figures.
US tariff another next blow
This means that the Swiss machine industry has already been confronted with falling sales for nine quarters in a row, said Swissmem President Martin Hirzel at a press conference. “And with the US tariff hammer of August 1, our industry had to take another heavy blow.”
Swissmem warns that the “horrendous US tariffs” of 39% threaten to “massively exacerbate” the existing industrial recession. The association is therefore calling on the government and parliament to take swift domestic measures – such as cutting red tape – to improve the framework conditions for the export industry and save jobs.
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Adapted from German by DeepL/ac
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