BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- With orders worth of 79.5 billion euros (90.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, the German main construction industry reached its highest value in 24 years, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) revealed on Monday.
In December 2018, new orders in the construction industry were 13.2 percent higher than that in the previous month. The month-on-month increase was mainly due to a wave of large orders, according to Destatis.
At around 7.3 billion euros, new orders for construction companies with 20 or more employees were 10.3 percent higher year on year than in December 2017. "This is the highest value of orders ever measured in a December in Germany," the German statistical office said in a statement.
The federation of the German construction industry (HDB) also published a positive annual report for 2018 on Monday. According to HDB, turnover of Germany's main construction industry increased by 11.3 percent to 127 billion euros.
"2018 far exceeded our expectations. Thanks in part to comparatively good weather conditions, construction companies once again significantly ramped up revs at the end of the year and further boosted sales," Dieter Babiel, managing director of HDB commented.
In order to "master the additional production", German construction companies increased their workforce by 25,000 to an annual average of 837,000 in 2018, according to HDB. The number of employees in the construction sector is expected to increase by another 18,000 in 2019, Babiel added.
