MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Mar qtr 17	Dec qtr 16 to Mar qtr 17	Mar qtr 16 to Mar qtr 17
		$m	% change	% change
TREND ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	26 343.4	-1.1	-1.9
	Residential	17 471.9	-1.7	-1.0
	Non-residential	8 877.2	-	-3.5
	Engineering	19 894.8	0.1	-12.4
	Total construction	46 223.4	-0.6	-6.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES(a)
Value of work done
	Building	26 227.2	-2.8	-2.1
	Residential	17 219.2	-4.7	-3.1
	Non-residential	9 008.0	1.0	-0.1
	Engineering	20 189.7	2.2	-13.0
	Total construction	46 416.9	-0.7	-7.2
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2014-15.

Value of construction work done, Chain Volume Measures - Trend estimates

Value of building work done, Chain Volume Measures - Trend estimates

MARCH KEY POINTS


VALUE OF WORK DONE, CHAIN VOLUME MEASURES

TOTAL CONSTRUCTION

• The trend estimate for total construction work done fell 0.6% in the March quarter 2017.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total construction work done fell 0.7% to $46,416.9m in the March quarter.

BUILDING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for total building work done fell 1.1% in the March quarter.
• The trend estimate for non-residential building work was flat and residential building work fell 1.7%.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate of total building work done fell 2.8% to $26,227.2m in the March quarter.

ENGINEERING WORK DONE

• The trend estimate for engineering work done rose 0.1% in the March quarter.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for engineering work done rose 2.2% to $20,189.7m in the March quarter.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2017	30 August 2017
September 2017	22 November 2017
December 2017	21 February 2018
March 2018	23 May 2018

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This publication provides an early indication of trends in building and engineering construction activity. The data are estimates based on a response rate of approximately 85% of the value of both building and engineering work done during the quarter. More comprehensive and updated results will be released in Engineering Construction Activity, Australia (cat. no. 8762.0) on 28 June 2017 and in Building Activity, Australia (cat.no. 8752.0) on 12 July 2017.


CHANGES THIS ISSUE

The methodology used for the modelled component of residential building work has been updated this quarter. This has resulted in a downwards revision to alterations and additions to residential buildings from September 2012.

This quarter there have also been improvements made to the imputation methodology used in the Engineering Construction Survey. This has resulted in minor revisions to the Engineering Construction estimates from June 2015.


DATA NOTES

This release includes revisions to both the Building Activity and Engineering Construction Survey. Building Activity data have been revised back to September 2012 and Engineering Construction data have been revised back to June 2013.

The revisions to Building Activity data and Engineering Construction data will subsequently cause revisions in the Private Gross Fixed Capital Formation series of the National Accounts. The first publication in which the data will appear is the 2016-17 annual edition of the Australian System of National Accounts (cat no. 5204.0), before being updated in the September 2017 edition of the Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat no. 5206.0).

Trend estimates should be used with caution due to the volatility caused by large engineering projects. For more details on trend estimates, please see paragraphs 24 to 26 of the explanatory notes.

Mining projects tend to be complex in structure and comprise a number of different investment activities including exploration, engineering construction, plant and equipment and buildings. A feature article released in the March 2012 issue of Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia (cat. no. 5625.0) provides a summary of the conceptual basis of the relevant ABS publications that measure investment in Australia, using a hypothetical mining project to illustrate how this investment is reflected in ABS data.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.