Siemens’ orders rose more than expected in the first three months of the year, although its sales and profits slipped behind forecast and the Iran war has created what the chief executive officer (CEO) termed a “very tense geopolitical environment”, according to Reuters.

Orders, a metric of future performance for one of Germany’s biggest engineering companies, rose 11 per cent in the January-to-March period, driven by strong demand, particularly from the US, as well as from data centres, power utilities and defence manufacturers.

CEO Roland Busch told reporters “customer buying behaviour” had not yet been noticeably affected by the disruption caused by the US-Israel war on Iran that began at the end of February.

But he said Siemens was monitoring developments and the possible impact on inflation, supply chains and sentiment.