Australian Construction Insights (ACI) released the summer 2015 edition of the ACI Construction Monitor. Source: Timberbiz
Construction Monitor provides comprehensive analysis and insights into conditions within the non-residential building and engineering construction sectors.
“The gradual winding down of construction work related to the expansion of mining operations over the last few years is the most pervading factor affecting the overall level of non-residential and engineering construction activity nationally,” said Geordan Murray.
“Our forecasts show this is likely to remain the overarching dynamic for the next few years. However, the large scale of the change in mining related work is concealing the countless variations in conditions affecting all the other segments of non-residential building and engineering construction.
“Against this backdrop, it is more important than ever to scratch below the surface to understand the intricacies of each industry segment and the variations across geographies.
“In terms of geography, the Construction Monitor’s state rankings show New South Wales has taken out top spot.
The recent performance of the state’s residential building sector has been well documented however; the resurgence of the state’s non-residential construction sectors has not attracted the same level of attention.
“NSW continues to post consistent strong performances across a range of industry segments without any true stand-out performances,” Mr Murray said.
“Despite taking out top spot overall, NSW ranked second to Victoria for best performing jurisdiction in non-residential building, and ranked second to the Northern Territory for best performing jurisdiction in engineering construction.
In an aggregate sense, falling expenditure on non-residential construction will be a weight in the saddlebag for Australia’s economic growth, lasting as long as it takes for mining sector expenditure to normalise.
“Our forecast shows growth in total non-residential construction is expected to return in 2017/18, but it does not need to take that long.
“If we see more favourable currency conditions and interest rates remaining low, we could see investment in non-residential construction make a positive contribution to economic growth sooner.”
