Just like driving a boat takes a little more navigating upfront with navigation equipment, knowing more about the downturns and upturns in your business market can help you to weather storms. Staying abreast of market trends during a crisis like a pandemic can help you keep your business afloat. For example, although business closures and social distancing have caused a downturn for many types of construction projects, there is still a great deal of construction that hasn’t been affected. Some construction is actually experiencing an upsurge. Knowing how the construction market is affected by COVID-19, can lead to increased sales of PVC electrical conduit and fittings.
While the Coronavirus outbreak may have reshaped the types of projects that will be built for a while, projects are definitely still out there according to Construction Dive magazine. For example, while hospitality, retail and entertainment projects are likely to be in less demand, healthcare construction and healthcare-related manufacturing projects should see an increase.1
Similarly, despite contradictory forecasts in past months, new home and multifamily construction is once again on the rise. As a result, power and communications companies, following the trend to move away from overhead power-lines to help prevent weather-related outages, are busy providing underground service to all these new homes using PVC electrical pipe. This trend towards underground is particularly rampant along the US coastlines where weather damage occurs more often. This “underground movement” provides a huge market for PVC electrical conduit and fittings.
The expansion of data centers is also on the rise since with the constantly increasing need for more safe data storage. This growth is likely to increase even more as businesses explore working remotely as an ongoing option.
Similarly, government spending to improve the infrastructure of our highways, bridges, water treatment facilities and schools is experiencing an upturn; fortunately all of these projects need junction boxes and other fittings. According to Associated Builders and Contractors News, many public works projects have actually received a pick-me-up because of Coronavirus. For example, the Airport Improvement Program will invest $3.2 billion in the development and modernization of aviation facilities across the U.S. Consequently, governors from some states, have moved billions of dollars into transportation projects in an effort to lessen the economic effects from Coronavirus.2
According to the Construction Dive Magazine, the demand for distribution and warehouse space should also continue to increase as U.S. companies relocate manufacturing facilities to North America to ensure supply and access to markets during disasters like pandemics in the future.3 Similarly, warehouse and distribution facility construction was already on the rise before COVID-19 because of the huge increase in online shopping in recent years. It is now snowballing due an even greater increase in online shopping caused by social distancing.3
Keith Prather, a market intelligence expert for the management consulting firm Pioneer IQ was quoted in Construction Dive magazine. He indicated that less reliance on Chinese-made building products will also create a surge of new manufacturing and supply chain-related construction projects such as factories and warehouses in the US.4
The construction landscape certainly looks different in 2020. However with a little help navigating the market trends, you can steer away from obstacles and find the projects you need to navigate a path to success.
1. The new normal: 8 ways the coronavirus crisis is changing construction, Constructiondive.com
2. ABC.org (Associated Builders and Contractors News)
3. The new normal: 8 ways the coronavirus crisis is changing construction, Constructiondive.com
4. The new normal: 8 ways the coronavirus crisis is changing construction, Constructiondive.com