The Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) announced this week that steel costs in Columbia's heavy construction and residential construction industries continued their pattern of decline in March due to the prolonged slowdown in the construction industry.
DANE's index of heavy construction costs showed that in March 2009, reinforcing steel costs for heavy construction dropped 1.95 percent, flat steel tags fell 3.30 percent, steel tubes went down by 2.85 percent, and wire mesh declined 2.37 percent, all compared to the same month the previous year.
According to DANE's residential construction industry cost index, wire rope costs declined by 4.51 percent in March, wire mesh fell by 3.23 percent, and steel pipe (for gas transmission) costs fell by 2.32 percent in March from a year ago.
DANE is a state-run national statistics agency which provides statistics from all sectors of the Columbian economy.