Construction Trend Tuesday (#17)
Manufacturing momentum wanes
Construction Trend Tuesday covers one (hopefully) interesting industry trend in a quick, two minute read. You can access the archive of CTT posts here.
Manufacturing construction spending surged more than 210% from the start of 2021 to the middle of 2024. That momentum has waned, however, and spending in the category is actually down about 3% from the all-time high last June.
Of course, most of that increase was computer chip megaprojects, and that segment has rolled over, falling 12% from the middle of last year.
What’s to blame? Probably a lot of factors, including uncertainty (regarding the economy, tariffs, the CHIPS Act, etc.), rising input prices, and tight lending standards.
Of course, even with the recent decline, manufacturing still accounts for about $1 in every $5 spent on nonresidential construction.
What’s Next
This week has a lot of data releases, including a very important jobs report on Thursday. We’ll cover that and a whole lot more in Week in Review, our every-Friday post that covers all the economic news and data in a breezy, five minute read. (Note that it’s going out Thursday this week because of Independence Day).
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