Mexican construction industry gains 0.5% in February

The construction industry continues to recover but at a snail's pace. After having stagnated and then slipped back from October to December, January and February 2021 recorded growth figures. The National Survey of Construction Companies, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, indicates that during February, the value of production generated was 0.5% over the previous month.

Compared to February 2020, the figure represents a drop of 16.5%. Although it is slower than in January, when in the annual comparison the decrease was 18.9%, the contrast is with the second month of last year in which the results were already going down, even though COVID-19 had not yet arrived in Mexico. Construction registered -21.1% in its production value.

This branch of construction was the one that kept the industry afloat between 2019 and 2020 when it was already starting to go through a crisis. Nevertheless, during February it continued as the segment with the highest activity, representing 47.9 points of the total 100 of the production value distribution.

Industrial, commercial, and service buildings were the ones with the highest construction activity in the second month of the year. In the first case, a boom has been noted since 2020. The increase in e-commerce, as well as the signing and implementation of the T-MEC, in addition to the recovery of manufacturing, have caused an exponential growth in the demand and production of industrial buildings. In February there was also growth in the number of people employed by construction companies, with 0.4% more than in January. Likewise, the number of hours worked increased by 0.2%. Salaries remained unchanged.