Australian Construction Downturn Deepens
Announcement posted by DesignBuild Source 07 Aug 2012
Conditions in the Australian construction industry continued to deteriorate in July amid poor demand and subdued workloads, the latest report has found.
And as the decline in selling prices and employment levels continues to worsen, the impact of the sector’s woes is increasingly flowing through to shareholders and workers.
In July, the Performance of Construction Index (PCI) fell by 2.2 points from 34.8 to 32.6, according to the latest Performance of Construction Index report published by Australian Industry Group (AIG) and Housing Industry Association (HIA)
At this level, the PCI is not only well below the 50.0 level separating increasing construction activity from decreasing activity, it is at its lowest point since September last year (see chart).
This means that not only are conditions in the industry deteriorating, they are doing so at an extremely fast pace.
Measured by the PCI, construction activity has now declined for 26 months on end.
Furthermore, as new orders (33.9 – up 0.5 on the index) continue to plummet – albeit with the pace of that decline having moderated in recent months – the speed at which new work is coming in continues to decline.....