{"id":108074,"date":"2026-07-28T15:05:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/?p=108074"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:05:43","slug":"%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%af-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a2%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%88%d9%85%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%b4%d8%b7%d9%8a%d8%a8-%d9%85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/108074\/","title":{"rendered":"Imports of steel, machinery, and finishing materials... What do international trade data reveal about construction activity?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International trade data does not provide a direct indication of the state of<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/103105\/\"> Construction sector<\/a><\/strong>...but it provides the market with important signals that can be interpreted alongside indicators such as building permits, projects, and construction costs. Imports of machinery, metals, and products used in building construction reflect a portion of the demand for equipment and construction inputs and help in understanding the direction of activity in the coming period.<br>According to the latest bulletin on international trade in goods issued by the General Authority for Statistics, the value of the Kingdom\u2019s imports in May 2026 declined by 19.5% compared to the same month of the previous year.<br>Despite this overall decline, the category of machinery, electrical appliances, and equipment and their parts remained the largest group of imported goods, accounting for 26.4% of total imports during the month.<br>This figure does not pertain solely to the construction sector, as it includes machinery and equipment used in various economic sectors, but it remains an important indicator of the continued demand for capital and technical equipment used in factories, projects, infrastructure, and modern buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Machinery Tops the List of Imports<br><\/strong>Electrical machinery and equipment maintained their position as the largest category of the Kingdom\u2019s imports, despite a 28% year-over-year decline in value during May.<br>From the perspective of the construction sector, this category encompasses a wide range of products related to the implementation and operation of projects, such as lifting and handling equipment, electrical devices, control systems, and certain components of air conditioning systems, elevators, and equipment used inside buildings.<br>However, a decline in imports does not necessarily mean a corresponding decline in project implementation. The change may be related to the timing of deliveries, the arrival of large shipments during previous periods, reliance on inventory, or an expansion in domestic production of certain products, as well as differences in import cycles from one project to another.<br><br><strong>Base Metals: An Indicator Linked to Project Structure<br><\/strong>The report showed that base metals accounted for about 8% of total imports in May 2026.<br>This group includes iron, steel, aluminum, and other metal products used in various sectors, and it comes<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/102433\/\"> Building and construction <\/a><\/strong>At the forefront of activities that consume a large portion of it.<br>Iron and steel are used in structural frameworks, reinforcement, warehouses, and industrial facilities, while aluminum is used in facades, windows, doors, and cladding systems.<br>Therefore, the volume of these imports remains linked, to varying degrees, to the stages of project implementation and the quality of the buildings under construction.<br>However, increases or decreases in metal imports cannot be considered a standalone measure of construction growth, as the Saudi market also relies on domestic production of steel and construction materials, and some imports may be destined for industry, transportation, or non-real estate uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Metal Products Post Remarkable Growth<br><\/strong>Metal products drew attention in May, after imports rose by 65.7% year-over-year, accounting for 11.9% of total imports. This category includes a variety of goods that cannot be entirely attributed to construction activity; however, its growth indicates increased demand for primary and intermediate products that can be used in manufacturing, construction, energy, and a number of other productive activities.<br>This point takes on particular significance when considered in conjunction with the expansion of urban and industrial projects, because many large-scale projects do not rely solely on traditional building materials but also require high-value metal components and mechanical and electrical systems.<br><br><strong>Where are the finishing materials used?<br><\/strong>The International Trade Bulletin does not provide a separate figure that aggregates all<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/106008\/\"> Finishing Materials<\/a><\/strong> Under a single category, because these products are spread across various categories, such as ceramics, glass, wood, plumbing fixtures, metal products, electrical appliances, plastics, and paints.<br>This highlights the importance of not reducing market analysis to a single figure. Imports of certain finishing materials may increase while those of others decrease, depending on the stage a project is in. A project in the excavation and construction phase requires inputs that are completely different from those of a project nearing completion, where work on facades, flooring, air conditioning, and interior fit-out has begun.<br>Therefore, the increase in imports of finishing products\u2014when detailed data is available\u2014is more indicative of a shift in a number of projects from the basic construction phase to the completion and finishing stages; however, it does not, on its own, provide a complete picture of the market\u2019s size.<br><br><strong>What Do the Numbers Say About the Construction Sector?<br><\/strong>The most accurate assessment is that the market continues to see strong demand for machinery, equipment, and project-related inputs, despite a decline in total imports during May.<br>Machinery tops the list of imported goods; the continued presence of base metals; and the sharp rise in metal products\u2014all of these are indicators reflecting a flow of imports linked to investment, development, and manufacturing.<br>However, international trade data remains a supplementary indicator, not a direct measure of the volume of construction activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To assess the sector\u2019s activity more accurately, this data should be cross-referenced with other indicators, such as building permits, the value of contracts and projects, sales of cement and steel, and the construction cost index, which tracks prices for materials, wages, equipment rentals, and energy.<br>Changes in the costs of these items could affect development costs and, consequently, sales prices and rents.<br><br><strong>Ports Reveal Supply Chain Trajectory<br><\/strong>The Jeddah Islamic Port accounted for 35.7% of the Kingdom\u2019s total imports in May 2026, making it the largest port of entry for goods.<br>Next was King Khalid International Airport with a rate of 15.9%, followed by King Abdulaziz International Airport with a rate of 11.8%.<br>The five largest ports combined accounted for approximately 73.8% of total imports.<br>These figures illustrate the pivotal role that ports and airports play in meeting the needs of projects, and they highlight the importance of efficient supply chains, rapid customs clearance, and domestic transportation in maintaining implementation schedules and avoiding high storage costs and delays.<br><br><strong>Looking Beyond the Import Figures<br><\/strong>What the May data indicate is not that the construction sector is definitively slowing down or accelerating, but rather that the structure of imports continues to be heavily weighted toward machinery, equipment, metals, and products used in the manufacturing and construction sectors.<br>The most important message for developers and contractors is not just to track the value of imports, but to monitor three key factors: the trend in input prices, the timing of the arrival of equipment and materials, and the extent of reliance on foreign suppliers compared to local alternatives.<br>The more a project depends on imported materials, the more it is affected by transportation costs, global prices, exchange rates, and supply chain disruptions.<br>Increasing the use of local content and diversifying supply sources give projects greater ability to control costs and adhere to implementation schedules.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">Minutes<\/span><\/span>International trade data does not provide a direct indication of the state of the construction sector, but it does offer the market important signals that can be interpreted in conjunction with indicators such as building permits, projects, and construction costs. Imports of machinery, metals, and products used in building construction reflect part of the demand for equipment and construction inputs and help shed light on the direction of activity in the coming period. According to the latest international trade bulletin in \u2026 <a title=\"Imports of steel, machinery, and finishing materials... What do international trade data reveal about construction activity?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/amlak.net.sa\/en\/108074\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about imports of steel, machinery, and finishing materials... What do international trade data reveal about construction activity?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":78149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"amlak_video_sent":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-building-materials-techniques"],"acf":{"amlak_post_excerpt":"\u0631\u063a\u0645 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