Cement News tagged under: Construction

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Australia: market uncertainties ahead

03 September 2012, Published under Cement News

Challenging market conditions persist for Australia's cement sector due to weak residential and commercial activity combined with the potential impact of a new carbon tax which became effective last month.   Last year saw a decline in housing starts as rising interest rates coincided with the end of stimulus packages. In November 2011, the Reserve Bank cut interest rates by 25bp to spur the market into recovery although it was unable to stop further declines in financing approvals. Latest da...

Cemex focuses spotlight on Colombia

28 August 2012, Published under Cement News

Earlier this week Cemex announced that its Cemex España subsidiary, Cemex Latam Holdings, presented an application to the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia to list its shares on the Colombian stock exchange and to offer a minority of Cemex Latam’s shares in a public offering to investors in Colombia and in a concurrent private placement, to eligible investors outside of Colombia. The offer includes all of Cemex's assets in Central and South America but excludes Mexico. The move comes a...

UK construction shrinks 10 per cent YoY

13 August 2012, Published under Cement News

UK construction output figures for 2Q12, published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Friday, confirm that nearly every sector of construction activity, from private to public and from housing to infrastructure, has shrunk considerably over the last year and that overall, construction activity across Great Britain has contracted by 9.5 per cent in a year. The figures reinforce a number of recent construction indicators but there is growing concern that long term damage is now b...

Fitch Ratings says outlook for Indian construction stable

07 August 2012, Published under Cement News

Fitch Ratings says that the outlook for the Indian construction sector remains stable for 2H12, despite the continued unfavourable macroeconomic environment, as some of the risks have already been factored into the ratings. However, the medium-term outlook could be affected by ongoing challenges in execution, coupled with high interest rates and lacklustre equity markets. Fitch is concerned about the construction sector's growing order book position amid slowdown in project execution, as th...

Construction contraction causes continuing consternation

06 August 2012, Published under Cement News

The latest UK Construction Trade Survey published today, shows that during the second quarter of 2012 construction suffered another sharp fall across all parts of the industry including current workloads, new orders and tender prices, adding to the continuing woes and growing uncertainty for the UK economy as a whole. As public sector investment continued to decline, in line with the government’s budget deficit reduction objective, there was no sign of any private sector recovery to off set...

Sharp construction fall causes deepening UK recession

26 July 2012, Published under Cement News

UK GDP figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK’s recession deepened further in the second quarter of 2012, led predominantly by further sharp falls in construction activity.   The UK economy shrank by 0.7 per cent, marking its third consecutive quarter of contraction and the longest recession the country has faced in 50 years. However, construction fell 5.2 per cent over that same period, indicating that the construction sector was now in a deep depression, d...

Euro construction output advances in May

19 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Euro-area construction output rose in May, as advances in Germany and Portugal offset declines in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Construction in the 17-nation euro area advanced 0.1 per cent from April, when it dropped 3.7 per cent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said yesterday. From a year earlier, construction output declined 8.4 per cent. In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, construction output increased 3.1 percent from April, when it fell 5.5 per cent, t...

Sharp public sector falls in UK construction point to difficult 2012

13 July 2012, Published under Cement News

The latest figures from the UK's Office of National Statistics released today highlight that output fell 6% in May compared to a year earlier.   Commenting on the figures and the bleak outlook for construction activity in 2012, Noble Francis, Economics Director at the Construction Products Association said: "Although the coalition has consistently made pronouncements of boosting UK construction and the economy, there is little sign of this in reality. Public sector housing output in May was ...

2Q demand waivers for product manufacturers, UK

03 July 2012, Published under Cement News

The UK's Construction Products Association’s (CPA) latest State of Trade Survey indicates that, following a relatively good first quarter of the year, product manufacturers suffered from a slowdown in sales in 2Q and are extremely concerned about demand going forward. Commenting on the figures, Construction Products Association senior economist, Kelly Forrest said: “With public sector cutting spending and private sector construction adversely affected by events in the euro zone, it is unf...

MPA responds to chancellor’s speech, UK

29 June 2012, Published under Cement News

In an open letter MPA’s Chief Executive has responded to the speech by the Chancellor, George Osborne MP last week, in which the Chancellor highlighted measures taken to boost business in the UK, by welcoming recent measures taken in the last Budget, but emphasising the onerous cumulative tax and cost burden which faces the industry, and encouraging Government to shift current spend into here and now capital projects particularly in construction, energy, water and transport infrastructure. ...