Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi (SCAD) issued today its monthly report on the prices of building materials for the month of April 2011.
The report presents an analysis of the movements in the prices of the various materials used in the construction industry in Abu Dhabi market during April 2011, compared with March 2011 and April 2010. The dissemination of the report, which presents a wide range of price data, will hopefully prove useful to data users in the public and private sectors in research, planning and decision making in ways that support the construction sector, besides related and dependent sectors.
The report analyses the month-to-month changes in the average prices of building materials groups, showing that several of them underwent changes during April 2011, compared with March 2011.The sharpest rise was recorded in the “Paints” group, which advanced 15.4%, as a result of increases in the prices of some of the group’s component items, namely, “Paints/Jollofex normal emulsion/dram/U.A.E.”, “Paints/Durosan matt emulsion/Gallon/U.A.E.” and “Memorex Paints” by 11.8% – 25%. The prices of “Tile and Marble” posted the second largest rise, going up 13.1% as a result of an increase in prices of “Porcelain color tiles” items by 9.1% – 32.5%. In addition, the prices of the “Construction labour” rose by 10.2%.
On the other hand the prices of “Steel” recorded the largest month-to-month decline, falling 4.1% in April compared with March 2011, reflecting a drop in the range of 1.9% – 11.2% in the prices of the items constituting this group. The next largest fall was in the prices of the “Aggregate and sand” group, which retreated by 3.3% as a result of falls in the prices of “Sand/Black” by 11.1% and “Aggregate/Crush” by 7.1%.
SCAD’s report finds that the prices of most groups changed during April 2011 compared with April 2010.The largest increase was in “Power cables”, which shot up 40.4%, reflecting a rise of 30.1-62.4% in the prices of the items falling under this group. The “Transport equipment rents” group posted the next largest y-o-y monthly increase (40.3%), due mainly to rises in the prices of two items within this group, namely, “Excavators of capacity 330-290 cubic meters” and “Lauders 966”. Furthermore, the prices of “Wires for apartments” also increased significantly (by 39.8%), over the periods compared.
The largest y-o-y monthly fall during April 2011 compared with April 2010 was recorded in the prices of “Cement block”, which retreated 15.2% as a result of the decrease in the price of “Hollow blocks” 10x20x40 cm, 15x20x40 cm and 20x20x40 cm/1000/UAE by 24%, 23.5% and 22.6% respectively.
SCAD’s monthly report of building materials prices report surveys the prices of 195 items of construction materials, categorized into 21 groups of commodities and services that represent the most important materials used in the construction activity, including cement, aggregate, sand, wood, steel, concrete, cement blocks, etc.The price data used in the report is collected from over 70 sources, selected by SCAD’s Price Indices Section, through field visits by a team from the section. The team also reports to the Prices Section in the event of closure or relocation of any source, and the list of sources is updated accordingly.
SCAD has published this report since 2008, in line with the directives of the emirate’s leadership for the development of economic sectors and support of their stability in all areas of interest to decision makers, policy planners, researchers, etc.
