Siemens battles the economic slowdown in China. This is the reason why the German technology group’s flagship, the Digital Industries (DI) automation division, showed unusual weaknesses in the first quarter of the 2023/24 fiscal year (as of the end of September). As purchases in the factory automation sector in the People’s Republic slumped by 55 percent, offsetting growth in the mobility and industrial sectors, Siemens’ order intake largely stagnated in the first quarter of the fiscal year.