Construction material prices in Peru have dropped to levels last seen in March of 2008 due to the weaker demand caused by the global economic recession, announced Renán Quispe, spokesperson from Peru's National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI).
Quispe explained that Lima's metropolitan construction material price index, which measures the price variations seen in the most commonly used construction products, dropped 2.24 percent in April. April is the seventh consecutive month for which this index shows a descent, and out of the nine materials analyzed by the index, eight recorded a drop in price.
The accumulated decrease of the index in the period of January through April 2009 totaled 7.06 percent. The metals group declined by an average of 9.55 percent in the last seven months. This average was dragged down by the drop in prices of steel flat rolled products, which fell 12.2 percent in this period.
Hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil prices in Peru declined 12.6 and 11.8 percent respectively, while rebar and nails fell 10.2 and 8.1 percent respectively due to a descent in raw material prices and lower demand.
Local news sources from another Latin American country, Honduras, also recently reported a drop in construction steel prices. According to the reports, Honduras saw a 55 percent decrease in the cost of reinforced bars over the last seven months. Nevertheless, the vice president of the Honduran Chamber of Construction Industry, Alejandro Alvaraz, noted that Honduran rebar prices are significantly higher than in the US and that US imports are not feasible due to the 15 percent import tax on that product.