The total income for the construction industry in 2014 was R392.3 billion, a new report reveals. The represents an increase of 13.4% per annum over that of 2011 (R269 billion), largely due to a boost in the construction of civil engineering structures.

According to a new report by Stats SA, comparing 2011 and 2014, large increases were reported for ‘construction of civil engineering structures’ (+R46.8 billion), ‘construction of buildings’ (+R26.6 billion) and ‘other building completion’ (+R11.8 billion).

Since 2004, construction of civil engineering structures gained the biggest percentage share (14.3 percentage points) in income from the construction industry when compared with the results of 2014 – from a percentage contribution of 27.4% in 2004 to 41.7% in 2014. Construction of buildings service lost the biggest percentage share (-10,3 percentage points) in the same period – from 32.9% in 2004 to 22.6% in 2014.

 

Profit margin

The profit margin for the construction industry was 2.9% in 2014. Construction of other structures had the highest profit margin at 10%, followed by shopfitting at 8.7% and site preparation at 8.1%.’Construction by specialist trade contractors had the lowest profit margin of 0.4%.

 

Employment

The total number of people employed in the construction industry as at end of June 2014 was 502 000. The construction of civil engineering structures service employed the largest number of people (166 000 or 32.9%), followed by construction of buildings (110 000 or 21.9%), other building completion (55 000 or 11.0%) and ‘electrical contractors (44 000 or 8.8%).