In the economic survey Trade and Crafts for the second quarter, which was carried out by the research institute KMU Forschung Austria, 12% of timber construction companies reported increases in their order intake. At 34% of respondents, order intake was at last year’s level. 54% of the survey participants reported decreases.
Sales prices in the timber construction sector increased on average by 4% year on year in the first quarter. Incoming orders and sales have thus decreased by 17.5% in real terms, as KMU Forschung Austria reports.
22% of timber construction companies reported a good business situation in the second quarter, while 40% described it as normal for the season and 38% as bad. When comparing respondents with positive assessments of their business situation to those with negative ones, you can see that companies with a negative assessment outweigh the other group by 16 percentage points. Thus, sentiment has improved compared to the previous quarter.
On average across the timber construction sector, the order backlog ensures full capacity utilization for 13.6 weeks. Compared to the second quarter of 2023, the average order backlog decreased by 12%.
As for the third quarter, 9% of the surveyed timber construction companies predict that their order intake will increase compared to the third quarter of 2023. 46% of respondents expect no changes, and 45% of them think that their order intake will decrease. Here, too, pessimistic assessments outweigh positive expectations by 36 percentage points. Compared to the second quarter, though, timber construction companies are not as pessimistic.
