Turkish construction materials sector expects slowing down in business in next three months

ISTANBUL – Reuters

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Construction materials sales in Turkey are expected to slow down in the coming three months due to orders cooling down and the Central Bank’s monetary tightening policy, which increases the extensions in payments in the sector, according to the recent Construction Materials Industry Index.

Money collection activities have been cooling down since April 2014 and the situation has become worse since then due to the Central Bank’s monetary tightening policy, said the index, which is published monthly by Turkey’s Construction Materials Industrialists’ Association (İMSAD).

Some regression in the sector is also expected in the coming three months.

The index said some decrease in domestic demand is expected due to seasonal reasons, but some optimistic forecasts were made for export orders.

The Confidence Index within the whole index regressed to 99.3 points in December 2014 from 102.3 points in March 2014.

The sector reached around $73.6 billion in sales volume in 2014.