Deutschland - Corporate Payment Survey 2020: Deutsche Unternehmen haben auf Krisenmodus umgeschaltet und bieten restriktivere Zahlungsbedingungen

Dies ist die vierte Ausgabe der Coface-Umfrage über Zahlungserfahrungen von Unternehmen in Deutschland, die im Juli und Anfang August 2020 durchgeführt wurde und an der 753 in Deutschland ansässige Unternehmen teilgenommen haben. Es überrascht nicht, dass COVID-19 und seine Auswirkungen auf die globale und deutsche Wirtschaft das vorherrschende Thema dieser Umfrage ist. Ein wichtiges Ergebnis ist, dass die deutschen Unternehmen besorgt sind. In diesem Jahr boten nur 62% der Teilnehmer Zahlungsziele an, was deutlich weniger ist als die 81% im Jahr 2019 (2017: 83%, 2016: 84%). Es ist schwierig, eindeutig zu beurteilen, ob das Fehlen von Zahlungsfristen ausschließlich auf COVID-19 zurückzuführen ist oder ob dies Teil einer allgemeinen "neuen Normalität" ist. Dies kann erst durch die Daten der folgenden Jahre geklärt werden. Dennoch wiesen in diesem Jahr mehr Kunden auf die angespannte Liquidität des Marktes hin oder nannten ausdrücklich COVID-19 und seine Auswirkungen¹ als Hauptgründe für das Angebot von von weniger attraktiven Zahlungsbedingungen. Die Präferenz für kürzere Zahlungsfristen nahm zu. Die Hälfte der befragten Unternehmen forderte Zahlungen zwischen 0 und 30 Tagen.

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However, even with these concerns, the current theme of “we stick together” - which is hanging from almost every child’s window in Germany - seems to be a mantra in the corporate world as well. The discipline to pay on time increased in 2020, possibly because financial difficulties surged due to COVID-19, and that in the current context, too long and/or too many payment delays could send a company into insolvency. In 2019, 85% of companies reported payment delays compared to 68% in 2020. While the payment delay time was only reduced by one day on average for all respondents between 2019 and 2020, the outlook is very different from one sector to another. 

The payment delay time of the pharma-chemicals² sector, which was reduced by almost one week between 2019 and 2020 to reach 27 days, came out as a positive surprise. Conversely, the automotive sector experienced longer delays, as the period increased by 20 days. Surprisingly, the ICT³ sector also had asignificant increase of payment delays by around two weeks, even though this sector should have benefited from the 6-week lockdown.
Looking at Days Sales Outstanding (DSO, addition of payment terms and payment delays), the DSO period decreased sizeably by around 9 days between 2019 and 2020. The outlook for business development is more straightforward and very negative for 2020, with automotive being the most pessimistic sector. The prospects would probably be even darker, if not for the State’s aid measures that 48% of respondents benefited from. For 2021, on balance, all but one sector expected a recovery when asked this summer. Indeed,construction bucked the trend with optimism in 2020 and pessimism in 2021, as order books are still full. The main risks for the export-business have changed a lot. Last year’s number-one risk, the U.S.-China trade conflict, is only marginal within the risk spectrum of
2020. Instead, 3 out of 4 companies named COVID-19 and its effects on the global or the German economy as the main risk, alongside the disruption of production chains because of the pandemic. Nevertheless, risks like the Brexit - which has been present since our 2017 survey - have not vanished and could become even more urgent with a “No-Deal-Brexit” looming for 2021. Thus, even with a slightly brighter outlook for 2021, Germany is far from exiting the “crisis-mode”. 

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_{1 This was not a multiple-choice answer. Instead, surveyed companies used the “other” category and wrote the answer down.
2 As some single sectors had only a very limited number of answers, we combined similar sectors for a more robust insight on the sector. In addition, we used the same sector combinations as in our 2019-survey, so that the results could be compared.
3 ICT – Information and Communication Technologies}