Five engineering and construction industry trends that took place from the beginning of 2022
1. Industry growth
The residential market remained strong in 2021 despite rising material and labor prices. Accelerated business confidence instilled by strong performance of the residential segment and growth from the nonresidential segment was made possible with the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
2. Industry profitability and performance
Supply chain disruption and sourcing challenges are likely to affect project delivery and margins. In general, supply chain disruptions and volatility are expected to be among the biggest challenges in 2022, and the firms that navigated through have emerged as winners.
3. Connected construction to help the industry unlock new value streams
Connected construction is being fueled by a diversity of technologies that are being deployed at an increasing rate. The industry landscape is rapidly evolving as engineering firms, contractors, and participants across the value chain realize the benefits of, and increasingly deploy, connected construction technologies. These technologies can help bring assets, people, processes, and job sites onto one platform—making everyone and everything work smarter—reducing downtime, optimizing asset utilization and efficiency, and gaining greater visibility into operations.
4. M&A to help build broad-based capabilities
With players in the engineering and construction industries taking a page from the tech giants' model and realising the importance of software and digital solutions, E&C companies have also shown renewed interest in technology and telecom targets to gain faster access to new digital capabilities and solutions. A move in the right direction, this is further anticipated to pick up pace in 2022 as E&C firms work toward acquiring technologies to help develop a connected, integrated, and automated operations foundation.
5. Firms continuing to grapple with labor shortages as workforce landscape evolves
The post-pandemic environment has challenged E&C firms in many ways. The emergence of an acute shortage of skilled workers and workers’ toll on the well being of the industry are two major topics that have dominated conversations in E&C firms since the start of 2022.
As we enter Q4 of 2022, what are the other important trends that we will expect to see by the end of the year?