Construction: Order Backlog Falls

The business climate in construction improved in November. Although the companies surveyed assessed their current business situation as less favourable than last month, assessments of the six-month business outlook, by contrast, were more confident. Machinery capacity utilisation rates remained at 73.6% (seasonally and weather-adjusted) and thus failed to meet the value for the same period last year by almost one percentage point. 26% of survey participants reported constraints on construction activity, with the largest share of 14% citing a lack of orders as the reason. As for the same period a year ago, 8% of firms reported a shortage of workers; while poor weather conditions had virtually no impact on activity. The order backlog fell to 2.7 months (seasonally and weather-adjusted) on average across all construction sectors; which was 0.2 months lower than a year previously. On balance 23% of the companies surveyed assessed their current volume of orders in hand as too small (November 2013: 11%). According to company reports, price increases were only achieved sporadically. Moreover, survey participants expect little scope for further price increases in the near future. On the other hand, companies continue to plan to recruit additional staff in the months ahead.