Latest data released by Markit – 6 May 2021
The downturn in construction activity continues in April but the thing to note from the report is unprecedented levels of supply disruption, which has caused input price inflation to climb to its highest since survey records began in 1999.
Looking at the details, commercial activity continues to be the worst-performing area while residential projects continued to move closer towards stabilisation.
Markit notes that:
“April’s construction PMI survey produced another set of
disappointing figures, showing the building sector still
stuck in a slump amid a continued soft patch in order
books.“However, it’s on the supply side where we see the
greatest causes for concern, with shortages of building
materials leading to unprecedented reports of longer
wait-times for inputs and pushing up purchase prices
at rate previously unseen in over two decades of data
collection.“Supply bottlenecks are starting to unnerve constructors,
leading to a decline in business sentiment about the
outlook over fears of forced downtime on-site in the
coming months and a threat to demand from sharply
rising prices.”