Construction in the European Union increased by 0.5% m/m in September

Production in the construction sector of the European Union in September 2023 increased by 0.5% compared to the previous month. This is evidenced by Eurostat data.

Compared to September 2022, in September 2023, seasonally adjusted production in EU construction increased by 0.1%.

Among the EU countries, the largest monthly decline in construction was recorded in Hungary and Romania (-1.9% m/m). The highest growth was observed in Slovenia (+7.4% m/m), Poland (+3.6%) and Slovakia (+2.3%).

The construction of engineering structures in the EU increased by 1.1% m/m and 2.8% y/y over the month, while the construction of buildings (residential and non-residential) increased by 0.3% m/m and decreased by 0.1% y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in August 2023, production in the EU construction sector increased by 0.7% month-on-month. The construction of engineering structures in the EU fell by 0.9% m/m and increased by 3.8% y/y, while the construction of buildings (residential and non-residential) decreased by 0.4% m/m and 0.6% y/y.

The stagnation of the EU construction sector has a negative impact on demand and sentiment in the domestic long products market. Since the end of 2020, construction in the European Union has been in a long period of recovery due to significant government support, which stimulated demand for steel products, but since the beginning of this year, according to steelmakers, the European construction sector has been suffering from macroeconomic problems and market uncertainty.

Eurofer forecasts that in 2023, construction volumes in the EU will decline by a moderate 0.5% and recover to +0.7% in 2024. In 2022, production in the EU construction sector grew by 4.8%. In the fourth quarter, this figure decreased by 0.2% year-on-year.