According to a Fin24 Article posted in June this year statistics indicate that South Africa's construction industry may be on the up. Read the full article here.

"After showing little to no growth for 10 years, compelling value in the building and construction sector is attracting the attentions of seasoned global peers and institutional investors.
The tide may be turning.

Following a bleak decade of falling investment and declining margins, the outlook is gradually improving, said Overberg Asset Management (OAM) in its weekly economic and market overview.

"Foreign appetite for South Africa’s building and construction sector is motivated by the exceptional value on offer and the opportunity for substantial earnings growth.

"Of all the sectors on the JSE, the building and constructions sector is probably the most cyclical and the most volatile. From current depressed levels the scale of a cyclical upturn could be dramatic."

According to the analysts at OAM, the caliber of overseas investors in the sector suggests significant potential. (See full data in the Fin 24 Article)"

The article goes on to list out South Africas challenges and set backs and then rounds off with:

"The tide may be turning. Compelling value in the building and construction sector is attracting the attentions of seasoned global peers and institutional investors.

Earlier this year, global cement companies and consortia, including Holcim-Lafarge, CRH, and Fairfax, were queuing up to acquire but were ultimately resisted by South Africa’s cement giant PPC [JSE:PPC].

Canada’s Fairfax, likened to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is on track to build up a 58.7% stake in Consolidated Infrastructure Group. German investment company Aton is making an aggressive bid for construction blue chip Murray & Roberts.

Foreign appetite for South Africa’s building and construction sector is motivated by the exceptional value on offer and the opportunity for substantial earnings growth. Following a bleak decade of falling investment and declining margins, the outlook is gradually improving.

Greater political and policy certainty coupled with a more business friendly mining charter should boost government and private gross fixed capital formation. As construction orders rise so too will the profitability of the order books, providing a double whammy for the building and construction sector.

Government policy will tilt in favour of infrastructure spending, either through state-funded initiatives or public-private partnerships. Being labour intensive, infrastructure spending offers one of the easiest and most realistic means for South Africa to achieve an inclusive economic recovery.

Moreover, infrastructure spending would address the bottlenecks which are hampering the country’s productivity and export competitiveness. The building and construction sector is a clear beneficiary of any ramp-up in infrastructure spending.

Of all the sectors on the JSE, the building and constructions sector is probably the most cyclical and the most volatile. From current depressed levels the scale of a cyclical upturn could be dramatic. While a repeat of the sector’s massive upswing from 2005 to 2009, is by no means a foregone conclusion, the calibre of overseas investors in the sector suggests significant potential."

Good news indeed in these uncertain economic times.