UK September construction PMI 45.0 vs 49.9 expected

The downturn in September is led by a slump in house building as output also saw its steepest decline since May 2020. Adding to that, new orders also suffered its fastest pace of decline in over three years. S&P Global notes that:

“Output levels declined across the UK construction
sector for the first time in three months during September
and the latest downturn marked the worst overall
performance since the early stages of the pandemic.

“A rapid decline in house building activity acted as a
major drag on workloads, with construction companies
widely commenting on cutbacks to new residential
development projects in the wake of sluggish demand
and rising borrowing costs. Concerns about the domestic
economic outlook also dampened client spending during
September, which contributed to the fastest reduction in
commercial building since January 2021.

“The survey’s forward-looking measures once again
remained relatively downbeat as order books decreased
at an accelerated pace and business activity expectations
eased to the lowest so far this year. Moreover, fewer
project starts meant that sub-contractor availability
increased to the greatest extent since the summer of
2009.

“Lower demand across the supply chain contributed to
a robust improvement in delivery times for construction
productions and materials, alongside a stabilisation in
purchasing costs during September.”