Article reprinted from Western Roofing magazine July/August 2007.

 

Market Share

Western Roofing Market Expects Slow but Steady Growth in 2007

by Marc Dodson, editor

 

The Western roofing market is continuing to grow, but Western roofing contractors are cautious in their assessment.  In our January/February issue, the economic predictions from our reader survey sent to over 2,000+ contractors in the West were published.  Contractors were cautiously optimistic about the Western construction economy, predicting their business to increase by 9.7% over last year.

         WeÕre confident, and our readers are confident, that business is going to be good for the Western roofing industry this year.  Most Western roofing contractors saw a steady growth in their business during the last few years.  They expect that trend to continue during 2007, although in a different proportion:  new steep-slope will be down, new low-slope construction will be stable, and reroofing will increase in both sectors.  In this article, weÕll take a closer look at the survey and report the market share of roofing products in the West.

 

 

2007 Projected Western Commercial Market

 

 

Steep-Slope vs. Low-Slope

         The new steep-slope portion of the market is expected to slow with reroofing taking up the slack.  While new low-slope is stable, look to the reroofing and recover in the low-slope market for the majority of growth through this year.  The low-slope market is expected to capture about 61% of the total this year with steep-slope taking about 39%.

         Overall, the projected 2007 market is 26% for new construction, 61% reroofing, and 13% repairs and maintenance.  The steady increase in the reroofing segment of the market in the West can be tracked over the last few years in both the low-slope and the steep-slope markets.

 

Western Product Mix

         On the low-slope side, BUR will remain the dominant commercial roofing material in the West for 2007, but with a smaller market share.  The 26.5% market share for 2007 is down slightly from the 26.9% market share reported in 2006, the 27.9% market share for 2005, and the 28.2% in 2004.  Once again, increases occurred in the market share of TPO and self-adhered membranes.

         In the residential arena, the top performer in the West for 2006 will remain fiberglass shingles with a whopping 49.8% of the market.  This is almost identical to the 49.6% reported last year.  Once again, the majority of the sales of fiberglass/laminated shingles comes from the high-end, as major manufacturers continue to emphasize their premium product lines, the majority being applied on reroofing projects.

 

 

2007 Projected Western Residential Market

 

The Road Ahead

         What lies ahead for the remainder of 2007 and beyond?  By most federal and private surveys, the economy and the construction industry should see a slow but steady growth.  More emphasis is being placed in the reroofing and remodeling arenas.  Many of our readers tell us they have a backlog of work and many times are limited only by finding enough people willing to work on the roof.  Recruiting able-bodied workers into the roofing industry continues to be a major problem.

         Western contractors state they expect the commercial roofing market to pick up dramatically in the next few months as new projects finally break ground.  The busiest residential contractors are those working on high-end projects.

         In recent rears, manufactures have introduced new products and invested in Western plant expansions.  Both manufacturers and contractors are banking on the continued growth of the Western roofing market. ¥¥¥