Readymix concrete poured on construction sites in Canterbury rose by +69% in the March 2012 quarter to 128,600 cubic metres, up from just 76,100 m3 in the same quarter a year earlier. In metropolitan Christchurch, the rise was even higher at +74%.
However, outside Canterbury the volumes of new concrete poured were particularly weak in the March quarter, according to the latest data released by Statistics NZ.
In the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, the decline has been -12%. In Gisborne and the Hawkes Bay -26%.
In the Wellington region, concrete production is down -12% and in Auckland it declined -10%.
The only regions other than Canterbury to buck the trend were Northland, up +7.5% and Otago/Southland, up +17%.
If Christchurch had level-pegged, the nationwide decline in production would have been down -5% - but with these quake-recovery volumes, the national data shows a +3.4% growth from the same quarter a year ago, to 663,600 cubic meters.
These low levels are expected to show up in weak regional construction components in the 2012 Q1 GDP data which will be released on Thursday, June 21, 2012.
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