Last month, the Construction Business Survey Index (CBSI) continued its decline for four consecutive months.
The Korea Construction Industry Institute reported on the 4th that the CBSI for August recorded a decline of 4.9 points to 68.2 compared to the previous month. When the CBS falls below the baseline of 100, it indicates that more corporations view the current construction business situation pessimistically than optimistically, and vice versa.
Researcher Lee Ji-hye noted, "The perceived construction business in August has continued its downward trend for the fourth month, falling to the 60 range, indicating that difficult construction business trends are ongoing."
Looking at the detailed indices by institutional sector, both the construction progress index (75.9, -9.5p) and new order index (63.6, -5.6p) saw significant declines compared to the previous month. Additionally, the material supply index (88.5, -5.5p), construction receivables index (79.1, -4.7p), and order backlog index (67.7, -1.5p) also fell.
The new order indices by type of construction showed that both dwellings (64.5, -10.1p) and civil engineering (68.7, -2.0p) declined, while non-residential construction (64.6, +1.6p) increased.
By corporation size, the large corporation index (92.3, -0.6p), mid-sized corporation index (59.3, -7.4p), and small corporation index (53.2, -6.6p) all declined compared to the previous month. Regionally, both the Seoul index (79.3, -7.8p) and provincial index (55.1, -5.8p) also decreased.
Last month, the influence of the new order index on the comprehensive performance index was 58.7%, an increase of 4.9 percentage points compared to the previous month. The influence of the construction receivables index was 2.6%, a decrease of 3.1 percentage points, representing the largest decline.
The forecast index for this month is expected to be 65.5, which is 2.7 points lower than the August performance index.
This researcher stated, "The comprehensive forecast index remains below 100, indicating a sustained high proportion of negative outlooks regarding the construction business."