February building plans completed up 3.4%

The real value of building plans completed as reported by larger municipalities rose by 3.4% year on year (y/y) in February, according to Statistics SA (Stats SA) data released on Thursday. The real value of building plans passed increased by 8.2% y/y.

The increase in the real value of buildings reported as completed in February was due to a 25.3% y/y surge in non-residential buildings, while residential buildings showed a 6.0% y/y rise as opposed to a 15.0% y/y decrease for additions and alterations.

The rise in the real value of buildings plans passed in February was due to a 10.3% y/y gain in non-residential buildings, while residential buildings showed a 20.1% y/y climb, while additions and alterations fell by 9.3% y/y.

Lumpy non-residential building plans such as shopping centres tend to lead to a volatile monthly series, so it is better to look at the seasonally adjusted annualised three-month series.

This showed that the real value of building plans completed grew by 21.9% in the three months to end February compared with the prior three months, while building plans passed increased by 27.3% over the same period.

The building plan data is supported by the cement sales volumes data released by the Cement and Concrete Institute (C&CI). These showed that cement sales soared by 22.0% y/y in January, but this slowed to a 7.4% y/y gain in February.

The February 2012 data is merely the latest in a string of strong y/y cement sales increases. The increase in the prior five months (September to January) was 10.5% y/y with the November 2011 tonnage sold of 1,141,248 the highest monthly total since 2008.

The Competition Commission only allowed the CNCI to report a national figure, not the regional or product detail. At the beginning of April, even this little data snippet was stopped.

The detail would allow economists to better see how much of the cement sales are going into the new power stations, mines, dams and residential buildings in rural areas, none of which is reported by Stats SA when they release the building plan data for larger municipalities.

"We will engage the Competition Commission on why the data may not be published," Treasury Director Lungisa Fuzile said on April 13 in response to a question from I-Net Bridge/BusinessLIVE.