Modern Steel Construction • June 2021 • AISC Business Barometer

Data Driven highlights market trends, economic forecasts, or other relevant numbers that affect steel design and construction. This month’s data focuses on AISC’s Business Barometer.

On-Hold Projects

AS A STEEL FABRICATOR, do you notice longer lead times on materials or see more of your projects put on hold from time to time? Are you finding more success with certain project types? And do you ever wonder whether other fabricators are experiencing the same thing?

For the past 25 years, the AISC Business Barometer has been answering these questions for you. The Barometer is an anonymous, quarterly survey sent out to all AISC full member fabricators, asking for feedback on business conditions, lead times, on-hold projects, backlog, shop capacity, and future labor investment. In addition, the information collected measures current and future sentiments and variations based on region and project sector.

During times when in-person fabricator round table-type discussions can be difficult— e.g., the last year or so and counting—the Business Barometer is the next best thing. While hundreds of AISC’s nearly 1,200 member shops participate in the Barometer every quarter, there are still several who don’t regularly participate and whom we’d love to hear from. The more responses we get, the better we can measure the pulse of our industry and how we can adapt to the future.

If you’re an AISC member fabricator, be sure to check your inbox and mail around the beginning of each quarter for the survey. You can fill it out online, mail it, or even still fax it.

You can view the most recent Business Barometer and all other market statistics at aisc.org/industrystats. And see above for a snapshot of the second quarter 2021 edition.

Looking at the above chart, "More Projects Being Put On Hold" has dropped continuously from 64% in Q2 2020 to 26% in Q2 2021. "Same Number of Projects Being Put On Hold" has bumped up to 49% in Q2 2021 from 43% in the previous quarter. "Fewer Projects Being Put On Hold" dropped to 25% in Q2 2021 from 27% in the previous quarter. This reporting is on a national basis only, not separated by region or segment.

Joe Dardis (dardis@aisc.org) is AISC's senior structural steel specialist for the Chicago market.