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Demand surges for infrastructure and energy projects

30/10/2024, 12:04

Photo: Anders Adermark, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, has released its latest survey of major Swedish companies, pointing to diverging fortunes across different sectors of the construction and infrastructure industries.

Anna Broberg

The housing construction market is not expected to rebound in 2025, which the report describes as “another lost year” for residential builders. A clearly increased demand for new housing projects remains elusive, with a pickup not anticipated until 2026.

Infrastructure and Energy Boom

In contrast, the infrastructure and civil engineering sectors are experiencing very strong demand. Order intake has risen sharply in these areas, driven by public investments in defense, energy projects and other vital infrastructure.

The robust order books for infrastructure and energy-related construction are forecast to continue, buoyed by government capital spending programs.

About the Company Survey

The Riksbank regularly interviews Sweden’s largest companies across industries like manufacturing, construction, retail and service sectors. This latest round surveyed representatives from 38 major corporations with around 230,000 total employees, as well as nine employer organizations and trade unions.

The diverging trajectories likely reflect Sweden’s policy priorities as it boosts spending on defense, renewable energy and shoring up critical infrastructure resilience in the years ahead. While housing may remain subdued, the survey points to a boom for companies involved in large-scale public works and energy transition projects.

The translation was written by an AI system, though the original text was authored by a human. Read the original article here