Construction sector hampered by slow payments in Q3

Slow payments grew 8.1 ppt to 53.3%.

Payment performance of the construction sector deteriorates as slow payments grew 2.5 ppt YoY to 53.3% in Q3.

According to the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB), the latest reading of slow payments within the construction sector is also the second highest since Q3 2012, accounting for more than half of total payment transactions.

“The heavy construction sub-sector accounted for the steepest increase in slow payments, up by 11.25 percentage points from 45.96 per cent in Q2 2017 to 57.21 per cent in Q3 2017. This was followed by special trade contractors which saw a 9.20 percentage point jump from 42.76 per cent in Q2 2017 to 51.96 per cent in Q3 2017,” SCCB noted.

Meanwhile, payment delays within the building construction sector increased by 6.07 percentage points from 47.74 per cent in Q2 2017 to 53.81 per cent in Q3 2017.

Across five sectors, slow payments went down by 5.6 ppt from 46.4% in 2016 to 40.8% in 2017.

The manufacturing sector dropped by 4.6 ppt to 42.5% whilst slow payments in the retail sector showed the most improvement with a drop of 15.4 ppt to 34%.

Slow payments dipped by 6 ppt to 42.1% in services, and by 4.2 ppt to 37% in wholesale.

Prompt payments have decreased by 2.3 ppt from 50.3% to 47.4%. Meanwhile, partial payments rose by 0.6 ppt from 11.2% to 11.8%.