Jeffrey Wilson, Director of Research & Economics at the national employer association Ai Group said: "The Australian construction sector faces significant pressure. Supply constraints for staff and materials are continuing to grow, with input prices setting a record in June. Housing, apartment and commercial construction activity all declined further into contraction this month. The effect of rising interest rates was evident across house building and apartments as builders reported a drop in enquiries and new orders," Mr Wilson said.
HIA Senior Economist, Nicholas Ward, said: "Materials and labour shortages continued to weigh on home building in June. These constraints have resulted in increases in the cost of construction and extended build times. Demand for new detached homes and renovations has been exceptionally strong during the pandemic. There is a record volume of detached houses under construction, with more work entering the pipeline each month. With this large volume of work to be done, builders can expect to be at capacity in 2022 and 2023," Mr Ward said.
Australian PCI® – Key Findings for June 2022:
|
Seasonally adjusted |
Index this month |
Change from last month |
12 month average |
Seasonally Adjusted |
Index this month |
Change from last month |
12 month average |
|
Australian PCI® |
46.2 |
-4.2 |
50.8 |
House building |
39.2 |
-4.3 |
46.2 |
|
Activity |
46.2 |
-1.5 |
49.3 |
Apartments |
41.7 |
-4.5 |
42.7 |
|
Employment |
50.8 |
-2.9 |
56.8 |
Commercial |
38.5 |
-8.4 |
49.3 |
|
New Orders |
45.8 |
-7.5 |
52.2 |
Engineering |
57.1 |
5.3 |
54.0 |
|
Supplier Deliveries |
39.0 |
-5.6 |
40.9 |
||||
|
Input Prices |
96.0 |
4.8 |
95.5 |
||||
|
Selling Prices |
82.7 |
2.3 |
80.4 |
||||
|
Average Wages |
83.7 |
7.6 |
76.2 |
Capacity Utilisation (% - seasonally adjusted) |
82.4 |
-3.2 |
83.7 |
Results above 50 points indicate expansion.
Background: The Ai Group/HIA Australian PCI® is a seasonally adjusted national composite index based on the diffusion indexes for activity, orders/new business, deliveries and employment with varying weights. An Australian PCI® reading above 50 points indicates that construction activity is generally expanding; below 50, that it is declining. The distance from 50 is indicative of the strength of the expansion or decline.
NOW AVAILABLE:
All 2022 release dates for Australian PCI®
Media Enquiries
Tony Melville (Ai Group) – 0419 190 347
Nicholas Ward (HIA Senior Economist) – 02 6245 1325
