European aluminium and steel market prices and premiums continue
to move downward while high-interest rates and increasing material costs
compress project investment across the continent.
“The outlook for 2023 is more
pessimistic, with investment in construction in Europe expected to fall by 2.5%
[year on year], with all sectors expected to contract except for civil
engineering,” European construction association FIEC said in its statistical
report 2023, published on June 27.
“Sweden is expected to be the country that is hit the hardest,
with investment in construction expected to fall by 13.7%, while Portugal
should be the best performer with expected growth of 3.4%. In terms of
employment, the sector employed 11.1 million workers in 2022, a decrease of
4.0% compared with 2021,” the FIEC report added.