Construction: Machinery Capacity Utilisation Reaches Almost Record High

The business climate in construction brightened in November. Although the contractors surveyed assessed their current business situation slightly less favourably than last month, they expressed greater confidence in their six-month business outlook. Machinery capacity utilisation rose slightly from 73.7% to 74.3% (seasonally and weather-adjusted), which was two percentage points higher than the value for the same period of the previous year. A good quarter of survey participants reported constraints on construction activity, with the largest number (12%) complaining of a lack of orders (November 2012: 17%). 8% of survey participants reported a lack of qualified staff, while 7% complained of negative weather influences. The scope of forward orders remained at 2.9 months (seasonally and weather-adjusted) across all construction sectors on average, which was higher than the same period last year (2.8 months). On balance, 11% of the companies surveyed considered their current order levels as too low (November 2012: 19%). According to firms’ reports, price increases were implemented somewhat more frequently. However, slightly fewer survey participants expected to be able to implement price increases in the future. On balance, more companies than in October expect to increase their staff bases in the months ahead.