THE STANDARD PIPE MARKET

摘要

We have left our forecast unchangedfor standard pipe as market conditions arerelatively similar to those that existed earlier.According to the American Institute ofArchitects (AIA), the ABI, a measure ofarchitectural firm billings and designcontracts, December billings declined to anindex rating of 50.4 from 54.7 in November.Anything above 50 is considered positive.Similarly, the Design Contract index declinedto 52.1 in December vs 54.6 in the priormonth. The strongest activity was reported inthe Midwest and Northeast regions. Whilethe period-to-period comparison seemsnegative, the AIA also points out thatbacklogs at firms reached 6.4 months whichis the highest level recorded since datacollection began in 2010.