Construction World July 2022

COMMENT

Afrimat has just released the Afrimat Construction Index (ACI) for the first quarter of 2022. This is a composite index of the level of activity within the building and construction sectors and is compiled by economist D r Botha says that the lifting of most of the lockdown regulations resulted in a V-shaped recovery for most key sectors of the economy – including construction – during the second half of 2020. He states that since then various sectors have either recovered to pre-COVID levels or started a new phase of expansion. The construction sector has remained subdued The ACI did manage to (marginally) outperform the gross domestic product during the first quarter of 2022 on a year-on-year basis. However, the index has returned to its usual trend of recording a decline between year’s fourth quarter and the first quarter of Dr Roelof Botha on behalf of Afrimat.

it seems that South Africa’s public finances are in good shape. The public debt/GDP ratio has stabilised and various prominent credit rating agencies have acknowledge National Treasury’s management of the

the following year. It dropped 3,5%. Of the sub-indicators of the ACI, only wholesale sales of construction and building materials recorded a positive growth in this period. Some positive indications though: compared to the first quarter of last year, the picture is considerably more positive, with four of the nine sub-indicators recording positive growth, while two others were virtually unchanged. The ACI recorded its highest level in 2016 (14,8). Since then the country has experienced low economic growth, state capture, gross public sector incompetence and high levels of crime which have dampened construction activity. If the first quarter of 2022 is compared to the same period in 2021, the volumes of building materials that were produced, the value of buildings completed by larger municipalities and wholesale of construction and building materials have increased. As expected, the worst performing sub-indicator of the ACI was labour. This declined by 15%. Despite the many challenges the construction industry is faced with,

country’s fiscal affairs. Two months left

There are two months left for you to select your standout project and enter it into our 21 st Best Projects awards. These awards recognise the best civil and building projects, architects, consulting engineers and specialist suppliers and contractors. It is also one of the first awards in the country to have recognised environmentally conscious building practises.

Stay safe Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & GRAPHIC ARTIST

PUBLISHER Karen Grant

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2 CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2022