The Australian Construction Industry Forum has recently published an up to date forecast, highlighting trends within the industry and notable civil construction projects on the horizon. The recent paper also gives predictions for the future growth of the civil construction industry moving forward into the future.
The key points from the report, published in July 2015, include:
- The Australian construction industry is amidst a whirlwind of change in the global economic outlook and major structural changes that are shaping which industries grow and which contract and where that activity will take place around Australia.
- The macro-economic outlook and interest rate settings are driving a structural shift and churn in the mix of investment in Australia.
- In the construction industry, total spending in 2013-14 reached $231 billion, slightly lower than the $233 billion we had foreshadowed in December 2014. It is expected that construction activity will fall to $213 billion this year (2014-15).
- Significant increase in residential building is already well underway and an increase to $79 billion in for 2014-15 as a whole is factored in to the revised projections. A larger increase is factored into the projections in 2015-16, raising activity by 9 per cent.
- A slight improvement in non-residential spending was observed in 2013-14 from $33 billion in 2012-13 to $35 billion. Total spending in non- residential construction is projected to dip slightly in 2014-15 reflecting soft non-mining business investment in the economy at large.
- The biggest change is a reduction in engineering construction, now projected to amount to $100 billion in 2014-15, a decline of 18 per cent on spending in 2013-14. The mining development boom is very definitely over. The slide in activity in this sector will continue over the next few years, reducing spending to $86 billion by 2017-18.
A free summary report is available, click here to download your copy.
Article source: www.acif.com.au