Browsed by
Tag: construction output

Awful January construction output figures may just be the result of a hangover from December

Awful January construction output figures may just be the result of a hangover from December

The latest construction output figures seem to confirm the need to be cautious over divining too much from one month’s data. The figures suggest that less work was done in January than in December, despite the shutdown of sites across the country due to heavy snow late last year. What’s more they are not that much better than the figures for January last year, which was also hit by bad weather. If the data provide an accurate representation of what…

Read More Read More

Worrying new orders figures, despite 18% quarterly jump

Worrying new orders figures, despite 18% quarterly jump

You wouldn’t expect a sharp rise in new orders for construction to be a cause for concern – not in today’s work-starved economy. But that is just what we have. On the face of it the 18% jump quarter on quarter in the volume of work in the final three months of last year should be a reason to cheer. More work in the pipeline, yippee. And I suppose it is not unreasonable to see it that way. But sadly…

Read More Read More

Plant hire turnover slows

Plant hire turnover slows

The plant hire sector is showing signs of weakening along with the slowdown in growth in construction. The latest Index of Services figures show the lowest level of output from firms renting machinery and equipment since May. The graph above tracks this output on a quarterly basis against construction output. And not surprisingly the correlation is about as close to bang on as one might expect. As an aside, this will provide some comfort for the statisticians at ONS who produce the…

Read More Read More

More inflation worries as plant hire prices bounce back

More inflation worries as plant hire prices bounce back

The latest data from the national statisticians ONS on services producer prices adds more concerns over rising inflation for contractors. The ONS’s services producer price indices provide data on price movements across a range of businesses, including plant hire, that provide services to other businesses. The recession in construction had driven plant hire prices down hard. But now it seems they are bouncing back as is clear from the graph below. Prices in the final quarter of 2010 were 2.2% up on…

Read More Read More

2010 saw fastest growth since the 1980s boom – but we are on the way down again

2010 saw fastest growth since the 1980s boom – but we are on the way down again

The impact of the economic stimulus on construction is clear when we look at the phenomenal growth the industry enjoyed in 2010. The latest set of construction output figures put volume growth for 2010 at about 6.2%, although the amount of cash pocketed by the industry rose by just 3.8% as a result of falling prices. In volume terms this represents the biggest annual jump in output recorded since the late 1980s boom. And by the time the statisticians at…

Read More Read More

RICS construction survey provides more worries than hopes

RICS construction survey provides more worries than hopes

Construction workload is falling and we should expect it to fall further. That basically is what the latest survey from the surveyors’ body RICS suggests. The lines on the graph 1 are pretty clear. There are firms doing more work (blue line), but there are more firms doing less (red line). And on balance there is a majority of firms of the view that workloads will fall over the next 12 months (green line). But given that this survey data…

Read More Read More

The Markit/CIPS survey provides cheer for construction – but take it with a pinch of salt

The Markit/CIPS survey provides cheer for construction – but take it with a pinch of salt

Taking the latest monthly construction survey from the buyers’ body CIPS at face value we could be tempted into thinking all is looking well set for the year. The overall index bounced sharply back from 49.1 to 53.7 – that means from below the 50 no change mark to a figure that suggests reasonably sound growth. And, says the survey release, there was not just a boost to work done but a rise in new business. More encouragingly optimism among…

Read More Read More

Construction probably didn’t shrink 3.3% in the final quarter…at least we don’t know that it did.

Construction probably didn’t shrink 3.3% in the final quarter…at least we don’t know that it did.

The figure for construction output within the latest “shock” GDP preliminary estimate figures showed construction output for the UK down 3.3% in the final quarter compared with the previous quarter. The release also estimated that the snow effect on construction alone caused a drop in quarterly GDP of 0.1%. Well did construction output fall by 3.3%?

November construction output figures suggest it’s downhill from here

November construction output figures suggest it’s downhill from here

Construction output is beginning finally to show signs that it is falling into a much-expected second dip into recession after the stimulus-propelled growth earlier this year. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that on a moving three-month basis the industry contracted by 1.5% in volume terms in November. The graph (right) shows the moving three-month total for output, with simple straight line estimates for monthly movements in the totals made for the pre-2010 data, which was…

Read More Read More

Some room for optimism to be found in the Experian forecast

Some room for optimism to be found in the Experian forecast

The latest Experian forecast on the face of it paints a picture of a rockier road for construction over the coming few years compared with its previous forecast. But on balance it is a slightly more optimistic picture of the path ahead for construction than is suggested by other forecast released recently. The impact of the economic stimulus on construction was perhaps stronger and more immediate than many might have expected and hence the withdrawal of the stimulus and the…

Read More Read More