A New Blog Series

For my first blog series of the year, I’m going to discuss what I see as the trends that will have the biggest impact on construction in 2016.  Whether it’s the Canadian recession or popular new methods that have found their way into the market, there’s a lot that will weigh in on the growth of the construction industry this year.

To kick off the series, I’m going to dig into the impact that energy prices are having on our part of the economy.  The fall of energy prices in 2015 made a lot of headlines and it’s economic impact has been widely discussed among experts.  However, one aspect of the price dip that the pundits have overlooked, is the positive impact that it’s had on the construction industry.  

Some Background

The current situation taking place in energy markets is the product of a chain of events over the past decade but this past year, in particular, has tipped the scales in a way that benefits construction in a big way.

For the purposes of highlighting the opportunity, here’s a short list of events that demonstrate how we got to this point.  

• A boom in the Liquified Natural Gas industry in the US along with a decade of ramped up crude production in Canada and Mexico has created a situation where North America is officially energy independent
• Ongoing geopolitical tensions between the US, Russia, and Iran as well as an ongoing conflict between the Arab states and Iran have escalated into a full on economic war that is being fought through oil production
• In an effort to further weaken the Russian and Iranian economies, US lawmakers have lifted restrictions on energy exports.  For the first time in decades, the US and its oil producing allies will be in a position to meet the energy needs of Europe as well as economies across the developing world
• Unfortunately, the slugging market and general lack of economic growth in the world means that energy supplies have vastly outpaced energy demand.  The end result is the radical collapse of oil prices that we witnessed in 2015
• Canada, whose economic success is completely tied to commodities (oil, lumber, and mining), is now experiencing a recession 
• The US energy production triad has taken a big hit, with the pain being felt in Pennsylvania (fracking), the Dakota’s (crude) and Texas (refining)
• As a result of the downturn, North American energy workers are now flooding into the construction labor force

That gets us up to speed, so in the next post in the series, we’re going to examine how this is actually a good thing for the construction industry and how you can use it to your advantage if you’re in the trades.

Looking Westward

In addition to my new blog series, I’ll be working to fill several critical positions in the western US.  If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in these opportunities – please let me know!

Tyson Conrad