Engineering Inc. - January/February 2007 - 6

 Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters,
valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning :
session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent
output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning :
Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started
at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in
/mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 m A r k E T
wATCh Forecasts Point to Robust Nonresidential Construction Market in 2007
By Joe Salimando S trong 2006 performance in nonresidential construction
markets should continue in 2007 despite a slide in housing construction,
latest industry data and forecasts show. U.S. Census Bureau figures reveal
that nine-month construction spending totals for 2006 were significantly
higher than 2005 in the following categories: hotels and motels 48 percent
, transportation construction 24 percent , manufacturing 22.8 percent ,
amusement and recreation 18.4 percent , TABLE onE power plant construction
17.7 percent and office buildings 15.9 percent . Highway and street
construction, meanwhile, rose 16 percent year-to-date over 2005, and
educational construction increased by 7 percent. Other positive growth
areas include sewage and waste disposal and transportation facilities.
Nearly all of these categories are expected to grow in 2007, due to a
fundamentally strong economy. Overall nonresidential construction was up
16.9 percent in unadjusted dollars through Sept. 30, 2006, compared to
2005. At the same time, the dominant market of the past few years—new
housing construction—was up only 1.2 percent in dollars and therefore
down, after being adjusted for inflation . What about the future?
McGraw-Hill Construction MHC sees as much as a 5 percent dip in
single-family housing construction, and a flat market down 1 percent for
hotels, office buildings and warehouses. They do, however, forecast a 5
percent gain in public works construction, another 7 percent improvement
in contracts for educational buildings, and a 14-percent gain for
manufacturing plants. Before we move on, note that—if the forecast is
borne out by events—manufacturing construction will this year experience
a fifth consecutive annual gain. Housing’s Regional Impact Three 2007
construction forecasting conferences were held this past October, with
MHC, Reed Construction, and the Regional Nonresidential Contracts for New
Construction Dollars in billions – ’05 = actual, ’06 = estimate,
’07 = forecast CommErCiAL & mAnufACTuring ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘05
insTiTuTionAL & oThEr ‘06 ‘07 nonBuiLding* ConsTruCTion ‘05 ‘06
‘07 PErCEnTAgEs ‘07 ovEr ‘06 nonrEs nonBLdg ToTAL** Northeast North
Central South Atlantic South Central West TOTAL U.S.: $11.4 $16.6 $18.2
$13.5 $20.6 $80.3 $14.7 $19.2 $20.4 $15.1 $27.6 $97.0 $15.1 $19.3 $23.2
$16.6 $27.7 $101.9 $18.9 $22.1 $19.5 $15.5 $22.8 $98.8 $19.4 $23.0 $21.7
$18.2 $24.6 $106.9 $20.0 $24.1 $23.9 $18.9 $27.0 $113.9 $16.2 $22.4 $18.7
$18.8 $25.8 $101.9 $17.9 $26.5 $19.6 $23.1 $29.0 $116.1 $17.7 $26.3 $21.9
$23.7 $28.9 $118.5 +3% +3% +12% +7% +5% +6% -1% -1% +12% + 2% — +2% -2%
-1% +1% +1% -3% -1% * Nonbuilding construction includes highways and
bridges, environmental, other public works and electric utilities. **
Total in percentage column includes residential construction, not shown
above. Total residential single-family and multi-family changes from 2006
are: NE = -7%, NC = -3%, SA = -5%, SC = -2%, and West = -8%. Source:
McGraw-Hill Construction Note: MHC’s new construction starts numbers do
not match total construction spending figures as supplied by the U.S.
Department of Commerce Census Bureau . In 2005, for example, the
government numbers showed construction exceeding $1.1 trillion, while
MHC’s numbers—which mostly track new construction and large
modification projects—totaled $663 billion. States by region: Northeast
= CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT. North Central = IA, IL, IN, KS, MI,
MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI. South Atlantic = DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC,
VA, WV. South Central = AL, AR, KY, LA, MS, OK, TN, TX. West = AK, AZ, CA,
CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY. 6 EnginEEring inC. JAnuArY /
fEBruArY 2007   Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid
characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning :
Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the
current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in
Unknown on line 0
Engineering Inc. - January/February 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - January/February 2007
