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"The search for suitable Christmas presents is assured again this year," says the trade association
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Sebastian Kahnert / dpa
Bottlenecks in important intermediate products such as microchips and traffic jams in large trading ports threaten to put a strain on supply chains.
Nevertheless, Germany's retailers do not expect any major disruptions in the approaching Christmas business.
There is no need to worry, said the managing director of the German Trade Association (HDE), Stefan Genth.
"The search for suitable Christmas presents is assured this year as well."
Although new releases and new models could become scarce, "that people will stand in front of empty shelves when they go shopping for Christmas, is not to be expected," said Genth.
There are more pessimistic voices from the electronics retailer.
MediaMarktSaturn expects delivery bottlenecks towards the end of the year due to the consequences of the pandemic and the continuing shortage of semiconductors.
Some suppliers have already signaled that this could happen in the coming months, said a spokeswoman for "Münchner Merkur".
"Smartphones, tablets, printers, dishwashers and refrigerators" are particularly affected.
In the past few years, German retailers had a combined turnover of around 100 billion euros each in November and December.
Sudden demand surprised manufacturers
The problems in obtaining the goods are also due to the pandemic.
"The delivery of non-food items from Asia in particular is currently associated with a number of challenges at the production and logistics level," said Genth.
Manufacturers were surprised by a rapidly increasing global demand.
Logistics chains such as the procurement of sea freight containers are also disrupted;
the containers are often not available in the places where they are needed.
The foreign trade chief of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), Volker Treier, recently warned of the consequences of the problems in international supply chains.
According to a DIHK survey, 42 percent of German companies cannot process existing orders.
26 percent have to cut back or even stop their production.
"The uncertainties in international trade will remain great at least until the end of the year," said Treier.
hba / Reuters