Top 50 Ranking of German Firms in the U.S. Breaking the $300 Billion Barrier

May 2, 2012 - PRLog -- A whopping 90% of German subsidiaries in the United States showed healthy gains in the Top 50 Ranking of German Firms conducted by the German American Chambers of Commerce. Their entities are investing in business expansions and new hires throughout the United States. Overall, the sales performance increased by 7.5% from $295 billion in 2010 to over $318 billion in 2011. The Top 50 created over 461,000 jobs, up from 427,000 in 2010.

Especially the continued boom in the automobile industry benefited the premium carmakers Daimler, VW and BMW with double-digit growth figures. As in the previous year, Daimler Group leads the Top 50 again, followed closely by Volkswagen.

These numbers prove that the U.S. economic upturn gathered pace as the year progressed, and the risk of sliding back into a recession consequently receded further into the background.  This also underlines the results of the last German American Business Outlook survey. Not only do companies continue to innovate, grow and hire, 72% saw an improvement of sales volumes and 86% were forecasting growth.

Many of the Top 50 companies manufacture in the U.S. for the U.S. market. They also often source locally and thereby create local value. For example, BMW had invested $4.6 billion in its Spartanburg plant in 2010 and has subsequently sold 14.4% more cars in the U.S. ThyssenKrupp is also one of the “climbers” compared to last year (from $6.7 billion to $9.2 billion in 2011). Torsten Gessner, Chairman & CEO, explains their success with their recent investments of ”tens of millions of dollars in plant expansions and acquisitions in the last year alone”.

Siemens USA is yet again the biggest employer with over 60,000 employees. Eric Spiegel, President & CEO, believes in the U.S. as a “vital production location, an important research center and a key base from which we export to the rest of the world”. The second biggest employer is Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s largest dialysis services provider, now employing over 45,000 people. With a sales volume of over $8 billion, the North American market now accounts for 64% of its global revenue.

Only 10% of the Top 50 companies suffered losses in 2011 - one of them being Hannover Re Insurance, stating that the year 2011 was “the second most expensive in its history” mostly due to huge insurance claims from catastrophic events such as Hurricane "Irene" or the Joplin Tornado.

For the remainder of 2012, German companies are confident, planning on increasing their investments, adding more jobs and expanding their footprint in the U.S.

For the complete ranking, please go to: www.ahk-usa.com/en/publikationen/studies-resources