However, overall U.S. construction starts for next year will remain essentially flat, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2012 Dodge Construction Outlook.
The producer price index for inputs to construction industries - a
weighted average of the price of all goods used in every type of construction,
plus items consumed by contractors, such as diesel fuel - was flat for September
but up 8.1 percent over the September 2010 level.
Demand for plumbing fixtures and fittings in the United States will rise 7.1% per
year to $10.9 billion in 2015, according to a new study by The Freedonia Group.
The pickup for total construction in August was
the result of greater activity for each of construction’s three main sectors - nonresidential
building [7 percent], residential building [4 percent] and nonbuilding
construction [13 percent]. For the first eight months of 2011, total
construction on an unadjusted basis was down 6 percent from the same period a
year ago.
"Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve districts indicated that economic
activity continued to expand at a modest pace, though some districts noted
mixed or weakening activity," the Fed reported.
Nationwide
housing starts edged down 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
604,000 units in July, while the June BuildFax Remodeling Index reported its highest remodeling numbers in 20 months.
“While the RMI indicates that the home
remodeling market softened somewhat in the second quarter, this is still the
second highest RMI we’ve been able to report since the third quarter of 2007,”
said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.
Construction spending totaled $772 billion at a
seasonally adjusted annual rate in June, up 0.2 percent from the rate in May
but down 4.7 percent from June 2010, the Census Bureau reported Aug. 1.
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