Mexico’s construction sector reports drop in March activity

Mexico's construction sector reported its second drop in monthly production in Q1 despite the strong recovery seen in late 2022. 

The latest seasonally adjusted and real-term figures from statistics bureau Inegi’s production survey of construction companies showed a 1.1% month-on-month decline in March, following a 0.2% increase in February and a 4.8% fall in January.  

In November and December last year, the sector posted its biggest recovery since the downturn seen in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the industry saw big swings in output last year, the November figures were the strongest for over two years, even though the estimated production value of around 24bn pesos (US$1.28bn) was still lower than the 26bn pesos reported in March 2020, when the decline started.

In spite of the month-on-month decrease in output during March, the figure was up 2.8% compared with the same month of 2022.

Buildings accounted for 39.8% of the month’s total production, followed by transport and urbanization works (25.6%), oil and petrochemical plants (13.6%), other non-specific construction (12.5%), water, irrigation and sanitation (4.2%), and electricity and telecoms (4.2%).

The private sector accounted for 54.6% of construction output, including 69.2% in the buildings category, which includes hospitals, schools, offices and housing.