WEX Releases Monthly Construction Fuel Consumption Index (FCI) Results
March 27 2013 - 4:05PM
Business Wire
WEX Inc. (NYSE: WXS), a leading provider of corporate payment
solutions, in collaboration with IHS, the leading global source of
information and analytics, today released results of its WEX
Construction Fuel Consumption Index (FCI), which indicated an
increase of 6.5% in February versus its level at the same time the
previous year.
The WEX Construction FCI measures national fuel consumption
statistics for the construction industry, which provides an
accurate and up-to-date indication of construction activity in the
United States.
WEX worked with IHS to capture and analyze transaction data from
its closed loop network, which includes over 90 percent of the
domestic retail fuel locations. With this data, the WEX
Construction FCI can be used to identify emerging trends within the
construction industry and the national economy.
The indicators were tested at monthly, quarterly and annual
frequencies, with the greatest insights produced using the
year-over-year percent change of the monthly data. For February
2013, the WEX Construction FCI reported that fuel consumption by
U.S. construction companies increased 6.5% versus February 2012 and
increased 1.6% versus the previous month.
The WEX Construction FCI, which is available monthly in advance
of the U.S. Census Bureau figures on construction spending, is
available at http://www.wexinc.com/fuel-consumption-index.
Last month’s WEX Construction FCI reflected the consecutive
positive year-over-year growth indicated by the seasonally-adjusted
index in most of the government’s subsequent construction data
releases. Private residential construction rose by 3.3%; however,
construction spending excluding improvements – a good measure of
activity – decreased by 1.8% in January. January housing permit
statistics were encouraging, with total permits increasing by 1.8%.
Meanwhile, housing starts in January dropped by 8.5%, to an annual
rate of 890,000. Total construction put-in-place, which is also
released a month later than the WEX Construction FCI, fell by 2.1%
in January. In February, the construction industry added 48,000
jobs after gaining 25,000 in January, which coincides with the
February increase for the WEX Construction FCI.
IHS Analysis
According to the IHS analysis, the month-to-month growth in
February for the WEX Construction FCI follows a recent uptick in
U.S. home sales. New home sales increased by 15.6% in January to a
437,000-unit annual rate. Existing home sales rose 0.4% in January,
while inventories fell to 1.71 million units, which is the lowest
since December 1999.
Inventories are lean and dropping because builders are not
building enough homes, which is why home prices are rising in most
markets today. In turn, higher home prices are bringing more
builders into the market. The housing market is expected to
continue to improve and outperform the rest of the economy over the
next few quarters due to the low level of housing inventory and low
interest rates.
The WEX Construction FCI for February 2013 is available at
http://www.wexinc.com/fuel-consumption-index
About WEX Inc.WEX Inc. (NYSE: WXS) is a leading provider
of corporate payment solutions. From its roots in fleet card
payments beginning in 1983, WEX has expanded the scope of its
business into a multi-channel provider of corporate payment
solutions representing more than 7.6 million cardholders and
offering exceptional payment security and control across a wide
spectrum of business sectors. The Company’s operations include WEX
Bank, Fleet One, Pacific Pride, rapid! PayCard, Wright Express
Prepaid Cards Australia, Wright Express Fuel Cards Australia,
Wright Express New Zealand and CorporatePay Limited, England, as
well as a majority equity position in UNIK S.A., Brazil. WEX and
its subsidiaries employ more than 1,300 associates. For more
information about WEX, please visit www.wexinc.com.
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