According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's construction industry reported a year-on-year GDP growth of 7.7% in the first quarter of 2013, a slight decrease from 7.9% in the fourth quarter of last year, failing to break the "7th" level of China's GDP growth rate in the past year. A series of economic data, such as the Purchasing Managers'Index (PMI) of the manufacturing industry, previously released, showed that China's economy was recovering slowly. Although the GDP growth in the first quarter was not satisfactory, the construction industry swept away the haze of 2012, and the first quarter of 2013 was off to a good start.
The operating situation of the construction industry in the first quarter showed a total output value of 2263.4 billion yuan, with a performance growth rate of 20%, reaching 20.2%. The construction area of houses in the national construction industry is 6.05 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%. The newly signed contract amount in the construction industry is 2970.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.2%. The increase in the amount of newly signed contracts compared to 14.6% at the end of 2012 has greatly improved. In the first quarter of 2013, China's foreign contracted engineering business completed a turnover of 25.19 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%, 1.4 percentage points lower than the growth rate in 2012. In January 2013, the newly signed contract amount was 40.12 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 43%, far exceeding the 25.2% increase in July 2011, setting a new multi-year high for growth. 51 listed construction enterprises jointly generated a revenue of 554.5 billion yuan, an increase of 20.3% year-on-year, which is basically in line with the growth rate of the total output value of the national construction industry. There are 15 companies with a year-on-year growth rate of over 50%, and 5 companies with a growth rate of over 100%. Fixed assets investment in the first quarter (excluding farmers) was 580.92 billion yuan, a nominal increase of 21% year on year. The growth rate was the same as that of the same period last year, 0.3 percentage points faster than that of the whole year last year. Among them, state-owned and state-owned holding investments amounted to 1802.9 billion yuan, an increase of 18.7%; Private investment reached 3676.3 billion yuan, an increase of 24.1%. The total planned investment for the new construction project is 4142.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.0%; There were 67698 new construction projects, an increase of 5920 year-on-year. In terms of segmented industries, the investment in railway infrastructure construction is 54.51 billion yuan, an increase of 28% year-on-year; The completed amount of fixed assets investment in highway and waterway transportation industry was 182.84 billion yuan, down 1.4% year on year, including 157.22 billion yuan of highway construction investment, down 0.5% year on year. Fixed assets investment in water conservancy construction was 58.85 billion yuan, up 33.5% year on year, hitting a multi-year high. The completed investment in real estate development reached 5104.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%; The investment in residential development reached 3512.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%.
Important Information on the Construction Industry in the First Quarter: In the First Quarter, the Central Government's actions remained frequent. The State Council has successively approved the Comprehensive Planning of the the Taihu Lake Lake Basin, the Overall Urban Planning of Guiyang (2011-2020), and the National Plan for the Adjustment and Reconstruction of Old Industrial Bases; The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has identified 90 cities as the first batch of ten points for creating national smart cities, in order to promote the development of intensive, intelligent, green, and carpeted new urbanization, stimulate domestic demand, and drive industrial upgrading. The relevant person in charge of China Development Bank stated that smart cities will leverage a capital scale of 80 billion yuan; The Ministry of Railways has carried out a major reform. The new Railway Corporation will be responsible for drawing up the railway investment and construction plan, putting forward proposals for the construction and financing of the national railway network, taking charge of the preliminary work of the construction project, and managing the construction project. However, Sheng Guangzu said that the railway investment will not be reduced because of this. The fixed assets investment plan for 2013 is about 630 billion yuan. The wave of investment planning last year has continued to this day, with some provinces and cities continuing to introduce investment plans. Chongqing plans to implement 50 project clusters, with an annual planned investment of nearly 300 billion yuan, for sectors such as infrastructure, industrial development, and urban development; 452 projects in Guizhou have started construction in various regions, benefiting projects in urban construction, transportation, agriculture and water conservancy, with a total investment of 211.1 billion yuan; Shanghai's annual major engineering plan is also scheduled, with an annual planned investment of 119.3 billion yuan; The Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission has released the "Chengnan Action Plan", with a total investment of approximately 396 billion yuan over three years.
BIM has become the biggest hotspot in the construction industry. The relevant conferences and forums for the first quarter will be held throughout the country. In January, Jilin Survey and Design Association held an academic report on the application of BIM new technology, and the Quality Management Branch of China Construction Association issued a notice on the first "Engineering Construction Application Competition"; In March, the Architectural Times and Luban Consulting held a seminar on "Smart Construction - BIM Based Project Management", which was highly popular; The Beijing Engineering Survey and Design Industry Association held a strategic summit seminar on "BIM Technology Entering Design Institutes" and so on.
Based on the operating data of the first quarter, Luban Consulting has made predictions for the development of the construction industry in the second quarter. In the field of housing construction, we believe that the direction of real estate regulation in the second quarter will not waver, and the intensity of regulation will not be significantly relaxed. Although the enthusiasm for land acquisition has increased, the growth rate of new construction projects is not high. At the same time, with the country actively promoting the construction of affordable housing projects, it is expected that the growth rate of national real estate development investment in the first half of the year will be around 20%; In the field of infrastructure and railway investment, the reform of the Ministry of Railways has made the railway sector somewhat unpredictable, but it has not had a significant impact on railway construction investment at present. Moreover, railway infrastructure investment has grown rapidly, and it is expected that the growth of railway infrastructure investment in the first half of the year will be around 25%; In terms of transportation construction, due to the fact that highway and waterway transportation construction has not completely overcome the suppression of negative growth in 2012, funding implementation is an important difficulty. This is in stark contrast to the huge transportation construction investment plans in various regions. It is expected that the national highway and waterway transportation construction investment growth in the first half of the year will be around 5%; In terms of water conservancy construction, during the 12th Five Year Plan period, an investment plan of 1.8 trillion yuan was arranged for water conservancy construction, and 750 billion yuan of investment (41.5% of the investment task) was completed in two years. Although the investment and construction task in the next three years is not high, the enthusiasm for water conservancy construction investment in the first quarter will not decrease, and it is expected that the investment amount will increase by about 30% in the first half of the year.
In 2013, China's economic growth rate was still not high, and it was difficult for the investment sector to experience the peak of "four trillion". The slowdown in investment growth rate will be the trend. In the future, the business of construction enterprises will decline, and the industry will enter an era of capacity competition. There will be new restructuring opportunities in the industry. Construction enterprises urgently need to enhance their brand value and management skills in order to survive in the era of capacity competition.