Iran Chamber of Cooperatives’ latest monthly report on Purchasing Managers’ Index for the construction sector signifies an improvement after three consecutive months of contraction.
The construction PMI in the current fiscal year’s 11th month (Jan. 21-Feb. 19) settled at 50 from 42.38 in the preceding month (Dec. 22-Jan. 20), indicating a 17.98% growth.
PMI is an indicator of the health of economic sectors and provides information about current business conditions to decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers.
Raw material inventory, employment conditions, new orders, supplier deliveries and export/production conditions were among the criteria quizzed, yielding a final score of between 1 and 100.
If a business scores 50, it means that no change has been perceived compared to the previous month, while scores higher or lower than 50 indicate that the business is expanding or contracting respectively.
The survey includes 12 business criteria and any changes, whether it be improving, no changes or deteriorating. It is measured through a monthly survey sent to senior executives of 100 companies active in the real-estate sector.
It is based on five major survey areas: "new orders" with a coefficient of 30%, "raw material inventory" (10%), "production" (25%), "supplier deliveries" (15%) and "employment" (20%).
The "new orders" sub-index stood at 42.71 in the month ending Feb. 19, indicating a 12.13% increase compared with 38.09 of the month ending Jan. 20.
The "supplier deliveries" sub-index, which measures how fast deliveries are made, increased by 8.31% from 53.33 in the month ending Jan. 20 to 57.76 in the month ending Feb. 19.
The "raw materials (construction materials) inventory" sub-index increased by 0.84% from 43.8 in the month ending Jan. 20 to 44.17 in the month leading to Feb. 19.
The "employment" sub-index decreased by 0.13% from 46.66 in the month ending Jan. 20 to 46.6 in the month ending Feb. 19.
To calculate housing PMI, seven secondary criteria were also surveyed by ICC, including "raw material purchase prices", which stood at 69.52 in the month ending Jan. 20. The sub-index declined by 7.83% to stand at 64.07 in the month ending Feb. 19.
"Warehouse Inventory" increased by 8.45% to reach 48.54 in the 11th Iranian month from 44.76 in the 10th month.
The "exports" sub-index settled at 50.48 in the month ending Feb. 19 from 50.47 in the month ending Jan. 20, registering a 0.02% increase.
"Prices of products and services" decreased by 6.76% to stand at 57.28 in the month ending Feb. 19 from 61.43 in the previous month.
"Fuel consumption" decreased by 5.03% from 55.71 in the 10th Iranian month to 52.91 in the 11th month.
"Sales" grew by 3.1% from 41.9 in the 10th month to 43.2 in the 11th month.
And, the sub-index of "performance expectations for the following month" settled at 50.97 in the month ending Feb. 19 from 52.85 in the month before, showing a 3.56% increase.
Tehran’s Q3 Construction Material Inflation at 69.9%
The general price index of construction materials for residential properties in Tehran, with 2011 as the base year, grew by 69.9% during the four-quarter period ending Dec. 21, which marks the end of the third quarter of the current Iranian year, compared with the previous year's corresponding period.
The annualized inflation of construction material was 88% in Q2.
The index stood at 1,186.3 in Q3 (Sept. 23-Dec. 21), according to the Statistical Center of Iran's latest report published on its website. Compared with the previous quarter, which ended on Sept. 22, the index saw a 2.8% rise.
In the second quarter of the current fiscal year (June 22-Sept. 22), the construction material price index stood at 1,076.5 and registered a 7.2% quarter-on-quarter growth.
The index rose by 39.6% in Q3 compared with last year's corresponding quarter (year-on-year). In Q2 of last year, the year-on-year index growth was 65.2%.
Compared with the previous quarter, the category of “glass” registered the highest growth among all categories of construction materials with a growth of 16.7%.
“Cement, concrete and sand” recorded a decline of 6.6% compared with the preceding quarter and the “electrical facilities” category registered the lowest year-on-year price growth with 24.2%.
The highest annual price hike was registered for “cement, concrete and sand” group with 108.9% and the lowest annual growth was posted by the “services” group with 38.2%.
