The American construction industry saw a dip in spending after President Trump announced his new steel and aluminum tariffs. (Photo courtesy of Mark Baron Construction)
According to the U.S. Commerce Department’s census, American construction spending was down in March, but still up from the previous year.
The seasonally adjusted rate of construction in March was $1.285 trillion, down 1.6 percent from February’s revised estimate of $1.306 trillion. But despite the drop, U.S. construction spending remained up 3.6 percent over the March 2017 rate.
While public sector spending stayed level with February rates ($297.2 billion to February’s estimate of $297.3 billion), private sector spending went down relatively dramatically. Residential construction took the brunt of the drop, with a 3.5 percent decrease. This marks the biggest decline since April 2009, when the market decreased by 4.2 percent. And, within residential construction, multifamily units (like apartment buildings) took the worst of the fall. Multifamily construction spending has been dropping for three months, putting it at 8.2 percent below the March 2017 rate.
Some in the industry wonder if the change is connected to the White House’s recent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which President Trump announced at the beginning of March. A late March study by the National Association of Realtors predicted that construction would be one of the industries hardest-hit by the tariffs. Observers fear…