Results of the Business Conditions Survey conducted by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) states that contractors are reporting worsening business conditions.

The fourth-quarter confidence index is significantly lower than that of the third quarter, with the most pronounced results in the civil engineering sector. The highest drop in business confidence among building and civil contractors was in the CIDB grade five and grade six, the traditional subcontractors.

Civil contractors in grade seven and grade eight, however, showed no significant quarter-on-quarter change in business confidence. Building contractors reported a shortage of skilled artisans as a continuing constraint to business, even though they are reducing their labour force owing to unfavourable conditions.

The CIDB has just released its Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Business Conditions Survey, which measures contracting business conditions among CIDB-registered contractors at provincial level and in different contractor grades. The SME Business Conditions Survey is undertaken by the Bureau for Economic Research for the CIDB. The survey measures, besides others, the business confidence, construction activity, tendering competition, employment and labour constraints among CIDB registered contractors, predominantly from the CIDB grade three to grade seven. The survey will shortly be available on the CIDB website.

The SME Business Conditions Survey is the most recent in a range of industry surveys that the CIDB is undertaking, not only as a service to the industry, but also, equally important, to inform the CIDB of the state of the development of the industry.

The CIDB has been undertaking Construction Industry Indicator surveys for the past five years, which measure client and contractor satisfaction, profitability, payment delays and procurement indicators. The CIDB also recently introduced the CIDB Quarterly Monitor to study public-sector contract awards, contracting capacity, empowerment and contractor development trends across the country.

“The CIDB Business Conditions Survey provides a deeper understanding of the business environment and the needs of SME contractors in order for the CIDB to develop more respon- sive interventions,” concludes CIDB project manager responsible for the survey Ntebo Ngozwana.

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