Fibre Optic Cable--Europe/Eastern Europe remains weak, and Western Europe slips further in Q2

摘要

Europe's economy had a severe drop in Q1 09, with the Eurozone GDP dropping 2.5% from Q4 08 and 5.9% from Q1 08. There are signs that the recessionary pressures have eased somewhat in Q2, but weak export and unemployment indicators suggest that Europe may show a more gradual recovery than the US. This appears to be the case with optical cable - Western Europe's Q2 demand was 5% less than Q1, but shipments were up 2% due to a rise in export business. In this issue, we revised our assessment of E. Europe's Q1 demand downwards, but early reports of Q2 demand suggest a slight improvement in E. Europe's Q2 over Q1.