HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) – Germany’s maritime suppliers are looking to the future with confidence despite a slight drop in sales last year. “The situation and mood in the industry is good to very good,” said the CEO of VDMA Marine Equipment and Systems, Martin Johannsmann, on Thursday at the presentation of the annual report in Hamburg. The reason for this is that incoming orders rose by 14.3 percent last year and that further orders were received this year due to the global boom in new ship construction. The total turnover of the industry with its around 63,000 employees fell by around 200 million euros to 10.3 billion euros last year compared to the first Corona year 2020./klm/DP/jha/