German Companies’ Closure Rate Up 16% in 2024

Based on data from the Creditreform agency, the Mannheim Enterprise Panel (MUP) notes that the number of company closures in Germany increased by 16% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Some 196,000 companies, predominantly small ones, were forced to go out of business. Energy-intensive industries are particularly hard hit by an insolvency wave which is the highest since the financial crisis of 2009, when 214,000 companies went under. And companies that survived are holding back potential investments, due to “high geopolitical uncertainties,” reports MUP. Industry, particularly manufacturing, with 19,000 companies, stands out with a high increase in the number of closures. Many smaller companies, being suppliers to bigger sectors like carmakers, specialize in just a few products, so their main clients vanished when automobile manufacturing collapsed in the past year. The same problem is hitting suppliers of chemical products.