Steel Markets
March 7, 2017
Construction Expenditures through January 2017
Written by Peter Wright
January data for Construction Put in Place (CPIP) was released by the Department of Commerce on Wednesday March 1st 2017. This was not such a great report. Total construction is still growing though more slowly. State and local construction are contracting. The contraction is not seasonal as we are considering year/year comparisons.
At SMU we analyze the CPIP data with the intent of providing a clear description of activity that we believe accounts for over 30 percent of total steel consumption. Please see the end of this report for more detail on how we perform this analysis and structure of the data but in particular note that we are presenting NONE seasonally adjusted numbers. Much of what you will see in the press may differ from our presentation because others are basing their comments on adjusted values. Our rational is that construction is highly seasonal and our businesses function in a seasonal world. Also we don’t understand how the adjustments are made neither do we trust them.
