The VDMA represents 3600 German and European machinery and equipment manufacturing companies. The
industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people
in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering
the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European
Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 770 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery
sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.