Europe construction market showing signs of life – CMCI

LONDON (ICIS)–Confidence in the European construction market in November rose across most indicators, with slight declines in confidence in current business conditions and current profitability, analysis of ICIS Chemicals Markets Confidence Index (CMCI) data showed on Friday.

However, sentiment in the construction market is still quite mixed despite the increase in confidence, with only future business conditions along with current and future order book volumes recording positive figures in the overall index.

That said, November CMCI data suggests that the construction market is showing signs of life, as, in October, all indexes bar two had dropped in comparison to the previous month.

Improving macro-economic factors, especially in the Eurozone, will have played a part in the upturn in the construction sector’s confidence.

ICIS is considering changing the methodology of the CMCI from January to track future expectations 6 months ahead instead of 12 months ahead. If you have any views on this, please contact Mark Victory at mark.victory@icis.com.  The December CMCI will be published in the first week of January.

The newly established ICIS Europe CMCI aggregates sentiment from hundreds of petrochemical market players actively involved in price negotiations across more than 60 different markets.

The Europe CMCI runs from +100, to -100, with zero on each index representing neutral, or uncertain conditions, a negative score indicating bearish expectations and a positive score representing bullish expectations. The indices also gather sentiment on the comparison between the current situation and the situation across the past 12 months to give a complete picture of current market conditions and confidence. The information is gathered in the third week of each month.  A full methodology is available on request.

For more details on the overall Europe CMCI data, click here