Giant Doldrums

THE COMMERCIAL/industrial/institutional market just can't get itself going. There is still way too little private money in the market. Consequently, the only markets with any real activity are energy-related or government-related. Not surprisingly, given current gas prices, refinery work has been good in the first quarter. Data centers continue to be one bright spot. Publicly funded water and wastewater spending should be up about 3%. Manufacturing may fall another 19% this year. Commercial, including offices and hospitality, won't be off by that much, perhaps 1%-5% lower, simply because the sector is already at such a low level.

Our best apples-to-apples comparison of revenues from 2009 and 2010 shows the Giants' volume falling 4.85%. Our complete Giants feature in pdf form may be accessed by clicking this link.