The report includes pipes and fittings used in residential and light commercial buildings and covers the following key sectors in depth:
Plumbing pipe systems comprising:
• Hot and cold-water internal plumbing pipes and fittings.
Pipework for radiator heating systems and underfloor heating.
Rainwater, soil and waste products comprising:
• Soil and waste pipes, traps and fittings (above ground).
• Rainwater guttering, downpipes and fittings (above ground).
The UK pipes and fittings market has achieved only modest growth in recent years, due to slowing construction output growth, particularly since 2017, and falling raw material prices. The outlook for the UK pipes and fittings market in 2020 remains weak, but beyond 2020 future prospects appear more positive, as consumer and business confidence returns.
Key factors influencing market growth include changing levels of demand from key end-use sectors, principally in new housebuilding and non-residential construction, and changes in raw material prices such as copper. In both these cases, the trend in the last two years has weakened growth; construction output has slowed during the economic uncertainty arising from the Brexit negotiations, and is forecast to take a significant decline in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, whilst prices for copper and other raw materials such as aluminium have fallen.
Beyond 2020, prospects for the pipework market appear more positive, if there is a satisfactory resolution of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU leading to a renewal of consumer and business confidence and a return to steady but modest underlying growth following the effects of COVID-19 and working under the presumption, at the point of writing, that the UK does not experience a second ‘wave’ of lockdown as a result of further outbreaks.