40-Month Decline in Construction Materials Production Set to End Soon
The materials market appears to be stabilizing this summer after a 28% fall in production over three and a half years. Sales were approximately steady in June and production fell only 0.1% in July when orders rose 1.4%. Inventories held by manufacturers have been dropping since November and have now fallen enough — with steep production cuts — to push the month end inventory/sales ratio to 1.43 from a peak of 1.52 in December and January.
Source: Reed Construction Data
