2013 Wells Fargo Construction Industry Forecast

In Wells Fargo's 37th year of conducting industry surveys, 347 construction-industry executives from across the U.S. responded with their outlook for 2013. This whitepaper shows full results, with comparable data from previous years.

Here are four takeaways of particular interest:

1. Construction is moving ahead. Wells Fargo's bell-weather indicator for this survey — the Optimism Quotient — is a very positive 106.
2. The industry expects rental fleets to continue to grow. Half of construction equipment distributors expect to increase the size of their rental fleets in 2013. Only 5.5% said they expect their rental-fleet size to decrease.
3. Residential could lead the way. More contractors expect residential activity to increase (46.7%) than to remain the same (45.5%) or decrease (7.8%).
4. Contractors will buy new and used equipment. In 2013, 80.9% of contractors indicated that they anticipate buying new equipment and 80.3% indicated that they will be buying used equipment.