After several weeks of growth, the IHS Markit Materials Price Index (MPI) declined 0.3% for the week starting Jan. 6, largely due to an 18.5% fall in European gas prices.
Looking to 2020, the anticipated theme of the global economy is uncertainty, as countries around the world wait for clarity over future trading arrangements. Construction activity will slow as long as these geopolitical discussions linger.
News that House Democrats and the Trump administration have come to terms on the US-Mexico-Canada pact offers calm in the storm over trade policies roiling construction since 2017.
Protectors of feathered friends are celebrating the New York City Council’s passage of the most expansive legislation in the U.S. aimed at reducing collisions of birds with buildings.
On Nov. 19, the five-person Marin County, Calif., board of supervisors unanimously approved the nation’s first low-carbon concrete code that applies to both public and private construction.
Portions of the draft of an American Institute of Steel Construction standard, Seismic Provisions for Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Structural Steel Buildings (AISC 342), are available for public review until Nov. 4.