News Bites
U.K. construction PMI shows new orders are at record levels
(Kitco News) - The U.K. data has been great of late with the manufacturing and services sectors hitting record numbers in terms of expansion in the COVID recovery era. Today was no different, the construction PMI report from Markit showed that new orders increase at the fastest rate since the survey began in April 1997.
In terms of where the most improvement has come, house building (index at 66.3) was the best-performing category, followed by commercial work (64.4). It was not all good news as input cost inflation was also at a survey-record high during May, reflecting a surge in demand for construction materials and severe supply shortages.
Over in the EU, the German figures were also released. The construction sector hindered by severe supply chain disruption in May. The report noted 90% of constructors report longer lead times on building materials. Phil Smith, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit, said "Concerns among constructors have transitioned from the pandemic's impact on clients' willingness and ability to spend to now being dominated by worries about material shortages and an associated spike in costs. Supply disruptions threaten to constrain demand for new building projects as well as current activity on site.".
From a metals perspective, this will be putting a lot of pressure on the mining firms. This week there has been a pullback in the base metals prices but much of this is due to a resurgence in the U.S. dollar. The price of copper fell 2.86% on Thursday but has risen 0.14% so far in the EU session. Lumber prices have also been a very hot topic of late and it is easy to see why these firms are struggling to keep up with demand.
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