Construction industry picking up steam?

Cees Bruggemans, chief economist of FNB - that sponsors the survey - says overall profitability has improved, but there are restraints that could thwart any recovery as municipalities have spent just 41% of their capital expenditure budgets in the first nine months of the financial year, leaving 59% unspent, according to a Business Day report.

Business Report quotes PPS, a provider of financial and healthcare products aimed at graduate professionals as saying that its survey of almost 800 engineers showed that 40% of engineers were confident that skills shortages could be addressed as these represented a significant constraint for the construction sector.

For more:

• Business Live: Construction confidence up in second quarter
  
• Business Day: Construction recovery 'picking up but still fragile'
  
• Business Report: Civil contractors more confident as activity grows
  
• Bureau for Economic Research: Bureau for Economic Research.