Delayed debtors: Construction sector’s late payments hit record high in Q2

Late payments jumped to 52%.

Businesses were amazingly slow with their payments in the second quarter of the year, and the construction sector again topped the list of late debtors. According to data released today by the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau, the sector registered the highest number of slow payments for the past two quarters.

Payment delays within the sector rose notably by 3.78 percentage points from 47.66 per cent in Q1 2014 to 51.44 per cent in Q2 2014.

According to the SCCB, this was attributed mainly to a sharp increase in slow payments by special trade contractors as payment delays increased by 5.26 percentage points to 52.07%.

This also marks the first time in two years since payment delays within the sector have hit above the 50% mark. The SCCB noted that payment delays within the construction sector last crossed the halfway mark in Q2 2012, registering 54.9%.

On a y-o-y basis, payment delays within the construction sector inched up marginally by 1.74 percentage points, a slight improvement from Q1 when y-o-y change in payment delays increased by 4.98 percentage points.

Overall, local payment performance has deteriorated further in Q2, as overall payment performance fell moderately by 4.54% from 51.92% in Q1 to 47.38% in Q2.