Australian transport spending increases

New engineering and commercial construction activity increased by 12% in the last year, reaching its highest level since the start of 2016, according to the Deloitte Access Economics Investment Monitor for the December quarter.

Mining investment has decreased in five years from around 60% of all definite project activity to less than 20%. Transport projects now outstrip mining infrastructure spending in Australia.

“The improvement is partly due to the fact that the overhang of engineering work that commenced construction during the mining boom has finally passed,” says Deloitte partner Stephen Smith.

“But it also reflects a greater willingness from businesses to once again spend money on expanding capacity and maintaining existing capacity.”

The Investment Monitor database has details of 1,148 Australian investment projects valued at AUS$20 million (US$15.9 million) or more.

The total recorded value of projects in the database is $743 billion (US$593 billion), a 0.8% decrease from the previous quarter but 5% below the level recorded a year earlier.

The report doesn’t identify whether the investment is from government or the private sector.

Sydney alone has more than $50 billion (US$39.9 billion) worth of transport projects underway, including the $17 billion (US$13.5 billion) WestConnex tollway and the $8 billion (US$6.3 billion) Sydney Metro North West rail line.