Dive Brief:
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Nonresidential construction had a better March than housing did. The month’s $25 billion of non-residential construction starts was 32.4% higher than February’s, according to construction information firm CMD.
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That gain was "outsized," according to CMD’s Construction Industry Snapshot, as was the 40.3% increase in construction starts in March 2014—so year over year, starts were down by 5.1% for the month. The long-term average gain for March, the report said, is 6%.
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Industrial/manufacturing construction starts "streaked into the stratosphere," the report said, with a gain of 5,784.3% from February to March, largely because of groundbreakings on a $4 billion ethane cracker plant in Louisiana and more than $2 billion worth of other huge projects in the field. In the commercial sector, construction starts rose 23.1% in March.
Dive Insight:
The report’s authors noted that "the large month-to-month gain this year warrants cheers," but tempered the celebration with a note that the impressive gains in commercial, institutional and heavy engineering since February were no match for March 2014 levels. "All three major subcategories struggled to varying degrees" when compared with a year ago, CMD Chief Economist Alex Carrick wrote in the report. In fact, commercial starts were 35.4% lower than last March; the institutional sector lost 12.5%; and heavy engineering was down 2.1%.