Numbers in the second quarter of 2024 Builders Merchants Building Index (BMBI) report show another year-on-year decline in sales, although the rate of decline is lower than was seen in the first quarter of 2024.
Builders’ merchants’ takings in Q2 2024 were down 5.8% compared to Q2 2023, with volumes down 7.2% and prices up 1.5%. With two extra trading days this year, like-for-like sales (which take the number of trading days into account) were 8.8% lower.
Half of the 12 product categories sold more in Q2 2024 than a year before, with Workwear & Safetywear up 15.6%, but the two largest categories were both down – Timber & Joinery Products by 7.4% and Heavy Building Materials by 8.4%. Renewables & Water Saving was the category that slowed the most, down 28.5%.
Q2 takings were hit by weak sales in June, which were down 14.7% compared to June 2023 in 2023 by value and 16.9% by volume. (Prices were up 2.7%.) With two less trading days in June this year, like-for-like sales were 6.2% down.
Sales of the three largest categories were all badly down in June: Timber & Joinery Products by 15.5%, Landscaping by 16.4% and Heavy Building Materials by 17.2%.
However, takings in Q2 2024 were 9.5% up on the previous quarter (Q1) while volume sales were 13.8% higher, with prices 3.8% lower.
Across the first six months of 2024 takings were 6.4% down on 2023 even with one more trading day this year. On a like-for-like basis, sales were down 7.2% this year.
Builders Merchants Federation chief executive John Newcomb said: “Challenges continued for the construction industry in the second quarter of the year, notably in new housing where the slowdown is most pronounced.
“With many merchants supplying both the newbuild and housing RMI markets, which is still feeling the impact of high interest rates and a lack of consumer confidence, demand remains a key concern. It now seems we are unlikely to see a significant upturn in the market until 2025.”
Mike Rigby of MRA Research, who produces this report, said: “From the Q2 headline year-on-year value sales – down 5.8% compared to Q2 2023 – you’d think it’s a gloomy assessment of the market after a series of downbeat reports in the first half of 2024. But other recent reports show the economy and construction recovering. It’s just that the pipeline of recovering demand hasn’t yet reached builders’ merchants.”
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