Industry Update – Engineering & Construction
Larger buyers are continually seeking smaller acquisitions of companies with specific capabilities to provide greater services to the market. This is especially true in the area of infrastructure based engineering & construction with a focus on rail and transportation.
A larger percentage of US construction firms are paying their bills sooner and receiving better credit ratings, according to The Wall Street Journal. Weather woes and shortages of labor or materials often contribute to later bill payments by companies in the construction industry than by companies in other industries. But that is changing, according to a Creditsafe study that compared data generated between July 2014 and July 2015. US construction companies paid their bills 9.5 days past due on average, compared to an average of 11.5 days past due the previous year. The business-credit company also found that roughly 250,000 construction firms, or 6%, are no longer considered to be high-credit risks as compared to a year earlier. The Associated General Contractors of America, whose members focus primarily on commercial projects, attributes the credit upswing to steadily growing demand for construction services nationwide. Also helping to improve the financial health of construction companies are double-digit increases in home-construction starts and high US construction employment.
- The value of US nonresidential construction spending, an indicator of the health of the construction market, rose 9.3% year-to-date in November 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
- The value of US residential construction spending, an indicator of the health of the construction market, rose 13.1% year-to-date in November 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
Posted by Jeff Johnson.
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