Despite the ongoing uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic, growth in global construction output will reach 5.7% in 2021, following the 2.4% drop last year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Although recovering from the Covid-19 crisis, the global industry has borne a huge cost in terms of foregone revenue, it said.
The global construction will continue on a recovery path, following the historic collapse in activity in 2020 amid the severe disruption caused by restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, stated GlobalData in its latest report ‘Global Construction Outlook to 2025.’
From 2022 to 2025, global output growth is predicted to average 3.7% a year.
Danny Richards, the lead economist at GlobalData, said: "There is also still great uncertainty over how the Covid-19 crisis will play out, with positive news on the one hand stemming from the successful rollout of vaccines in many markets and concerns on the other hand over the reports of new variants of the virus and challenges in getting vaccines supplies to developing markets."
Richards said: "With activity levels trending upwards in the absence of restrictions on site works, there are likely to be record high rates of Y-o-Y growth in major markets in the coming quarters given the comparison to periods last year when construction sites were closed or when activity was severely disrupted."
Global steel demand for example has been outstripping supply, and there are reports across major markets of shortages of other key materials, such as timber, cement and aggregates.
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"However, with the surge in construction activity, combined with disruptions to supply chains and high shipping costs, prices for construction materials have soared or remain in short supply," he added.
