Meanwhile,

roughly 15 percent say their business is about the same as last year,

while only 12 percent have seen business increase.

ABC of Georgia

which represents the broadest segment of the state's construction industry,

including general contractors, subcontractors, specialty contractors,

suppliers and allied groups contacted its entire membership of almost

500 construction-related companies, in compiling the survey.

"We expect

a slow recovery based on our clients' feedback," said Alpharetta's

Dan Stephens of Georgia Blue, one of the state's largest blue print providers.

Stephens is among the 68 percent of industry professionals who say Georgia

is "possibly" headed into a back-to-back recession in the months

ahead.

With 12 percent

saying the state is "very likely" to face a new recession, almost

80 percent of those involved with the state's largest industry expect

economic recovery to be slow and delayed until sometime in 2003. Meanwhile,

21 percent predicted that renewed recession is "not likely."

Regardless

of Georgia's economic prospects, it is clear that the state's contractors

are running harder than ever in the chase for new work. The survey found

that 85 percent of the state's contractors are regularly seeing an abnormally

high number of bidders on the jobs available, a traditional indicator

of slow economic times. While intense bidder interest means usually means

lower construction prices, it typically signals low contractor profit

margins as well.

"We are

finding that people are only using overhead with little or no profit (in

bidding) and we are sure this will pose problems with companies staying

in business," said Linda Clark, sales manager of Nations Fence, a

Lovejoy fencing contractor.

Nevertheless,

the economic appraisal contained some good news for the industry. Inflation

is not a problem for the state's construction industry. Approximately

58 percent of the contractors say prices for construction materials have

remained "about the same" through 2002, though 27 percent have

reported spot price increases of around 5 percent for certain materials.

"I believe

we would see construction starts increase dramatically if some of the

major material suppliers, most notably steel and concrete, get in step

with the rest of the industry and give us more aggressive pricing,"

said Mike Dominy of All-Steel Buildings, Inc., a Buford building contractor.

Further, not

one contractor expected 2003 to be worse than 2002; at least 58 percent

expect the next year to be about the same as the past 12 months, while

42 percent predict improving business conditions in the new year.

Mark Shearon

of Qore Property Sciences, Inc., a Duluth geotechnical and environmental

sciences firm, is among those seeing signs of a faster than expected turn-around.

"The ongoing construction this year has been roughly steady over

the summer," he said. "However, we are working on numerous projects

that are in the land acquisition or pre-design stage, indicating a possible

uptick in new starts in early 2003."

The Associated

Builders and Contractors of Georgia (ABC) is a construction trade association

representing the commercial and industrial markets with nearly 500 member

companies. ABC is the only construction association that represents equally

the entire construction team general contractors, subcontractors, specialty

contractors, suppliers and construction-related firms. The statewide organization

is one of 81 chapters of the National Associated Builders and Contractors

based in Washington, D.C., which represents more than 23,000 general and

specialty contractors, suppliers and associate members. Fortune Magazine

recently named ABC to its list of top fifty most influential trade associations

in the United States.

Back

to Real Estate Home Page |