The Preferred Supplier Survey, pioneered by Industry Insight, evaluates the Market Exposure Rate (MER) of key construction material suppliers within the construction industry. MER is used to measure supplier participation in projects based on their exposure to project values rather than sales volumes. Since 2019 over 6 000 projects valued at R580bn has been surveyed, covering close to 3000 different material suppliers.
The March 2026 Preferred Supplier & Competitor Survey highlights a construction sector that remains under pressure, despite early signs of improvement in the project pipeline. Based on 154 projects valued at R6.6 billion, participation levels were moderate, with a large portion of projects either inaccessible or excluded, reflecting ongoing challenges in market visibility and project transparency. Project execution remains uneven, with delays linked to administrative bottlenecks, late payments, and funding constraints. While tender activity has improve, suggesting a potential recovery in future workloads, this has not yet translated into stronger project awards, which remain significantly lower y-y, particularly in the civil sector. Supplier selection continues to be driven more by reliability and established relationships than by price, while construction input costs are again rising above inflation, placing renewed pressure on margins. Overall, the market shows tentative signs of recovery, but delivery constraints and weak conversion of tenders into awards continue to weigh on sector performance.
Download the March 2026 report here (available to subscribers).
