Construction sector indicators stay positive in Q2
The cement consumption increased 8.3% in the second quarter of this year and the bank's evaluation of housing prices reached a new historic maximum in June.
The main activity indicators in construction stay positive, with cement consumption increasing 8.3% in the second quarter of this year and the bank’s evaluation of housing prices reaching a new historic maximum in June.
The July edition of the ‘Construction Sector Situation Analysis’, prepared by the associations of Civil Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN) and Construction, Public Works and Services Companies (AECOPS), recalls that the bank’s assessment of housing maintained its upward trend, with an increase of 8.6% compared to the same month last year, to €1,215 per square metre (m2), a new all-time high.
As for cement consumption, the data points to a growth of 8.3% in June, having increased 10.5% at the end of last year, to 3.57 million tonnes.
In the first five months of this year, demand for construction and rehabilitation of buildings increased, with building permits showing a year-on-year growth of 18.7%, as a result of variations of 19.3% in new construction and 17.0% in licensed rehabilitation works.
As for licences issued for the construction of dwellings in new buildings, these increased by 15.4% to 11,800.
Until May this year, the granting of new housing credit by financial institutions reached a monthly average of €1.17 billion, 30.5% more than in the same period of the previous year.
In the civil engineering segment, and relative to the first half of this year, the amount promoted in public works tenders totalled around €2.20 billion, which corresponds to a drop of 17.7% in comparison to the €2.67 billion promoted in the same period of the previous year.
On the other hand, the volume of public works contracts contracted and registered in the Base Portal in the first half of the year reached €1.86 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 68.1%.
In terms of the country’s economic activity, the economic analysis noted its significant recovery in the second quarter of the year, with Statistics Portugal (INE) reporting growth of 15.5% in the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the same quarter last year.
However, it points out that although this is the largest increase since 1996 when the current series began, this evolution results from a base effect, since the restrictions on economic activity caused by the pandemic were felt more intensely in the second quarter of 2020, having registered a year-on-year quarterly drop of 16.4% in that period.
