French construction activity continues to grow

The French construction sector’s performance saw significant improvement again month-on-month in October, according to a l’Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (Insee) report monitored by Kallanish. This followed previous improvement in September.

Last month almost as many companies than in the previous month indicated an increase in activity over the last three months. Business managers are also more optimistic about the prospects for future activity, the report suggests.

Employment also improved in October. More respondents than in September reported an increase in their staff size over the last three months. The balance of opinion on anticipated recruitment, already above its long-term average, has edged up, the report reveals.

Slightly less business managers than in the previous month considered their order-books to be well-filled. Companies assess their order-books as providing eight months of work, higher than the long-term average of 5.7 months.

The production capacity utilisation rate was stable last month after an increase in the two previous months. At the same time, 27% of companies reported production bottlenecks due to workforce shortages, a sharp increase compared to September.

In October, slightly more construction companies than in September announced that they will increase their prices over the next three months.