Construction (Germany):
Falling equipment utilisation rate

The slight worsening of the business situation in construction is due to poorer appraisals from civil engineering whereas the situation in structural engineering remained unchanged. The equipment utilisation rate declined, but at 67% was 4 percentage points higher than 12 months ago (in December the distance to the previous year level was 9 percentage points). Also the range of order backlogs decreased; at 2.4 production months it was only just as large as a year ago. Cor-respondingly, the dissatisfaction with the order situation increased, particularly in civil engineering. For the next months the enterprises anticipate an improvement of their business situation and also expect to be able to further increase their prices. Staff reductions are not planned, on balance; three months ago one in seven contractors assumed that employment numbers would decline. In construction in eastern Germany firms in both civil and structural engineering assessed their business situation more unfavourably than in the previous month. The equipment utilisation rate fell from 75% to 65% and was only just as high as at the same time of the previous year. Order reserves, at 2.1 production months, were below the previous-year level. However, growing confidence was expressed in the business expectations; a continuation of the rising price trend for construc-tion is also anticipated.