Construction activity jumped 5% in the 2nd quarter, ahead of the wider economy.

Employment is up 95,000 on last year, but the number of finished buildings is down 16.9%. Good news and bad news, in the same report.

Private train operators just got a longer runway on the national rail network, 15 years instead of 10.

And 2 tunnel crews, digging from opposite sides of the English Channel, met within 358 mm. Take that, tape measure.

Let’s get into it. 👇

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What's hot. What's moving. What you need to know.

The hard data is finally starting to back up the mood.

The latest Afrimat Construction Index, compiled by economist Roelof Botha, rose 5% in real terms in the 2nd quarter of 2026, ahead of the 2.1% growth for the economy as a whole. Year on year the index is up 0.7%, marginally below GDP growth of 0.9%.

The standout is jobs. Construction employment is up 95,000 on the same quarter last year, a 7.6% increase, while total employment in the country fell year on year. Wholesale sales of construction materials rose 8.3% year on year, building materials production was up 8.5% on the 1st quarter, and the value of building plans passed by larger municipalities climbed 14.8% on the previous quarter.

Now the fine print. The value of construction works fell 2.2% on the quarter, and buildings completed dropped 16.9% year on year. More people are employed, yet construction salaries and wages are down 4.5% year on year.

Only 5 of the index’s 10 indicators grew year on year, which is why Botha stops short of calling it a broad based recovery. The index has now sat above its base level of 100 for 4 quarters in a row.

The pipeline is growing too. Industry Insight’s 2026 Construction Book lists 110 projects worth about R396 billion, up 71% from R232 billion in last year’s edition. Not to be confused with the government version we covered earlier this month, this one comes from the market intelligence firm.

Afrimat’s CEO says the group is running through one of its most challenging periods in more than 2 decades, with aggregates providing the stability. The volume growth he is seeing comes from rail maintenance, provincial road upgrades, water infrastructure, residential and commercial construction, and renewable energy projects.

Plans being approved is usually 1 of the earliest signs of new work, so that 14.8% jump is the number to watch over the next few quarters.

Up 5% on the quarter, but only 5 of 10 indicators are growing year on year. Encouraging, not yet a boom.

Rail access contracts are being extended from 10 years to 15.

The Department of Transport has gazetted Network Statement Version 4, the rulebook governing access to South Africa’s national rail network for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years. The headline change is that rail access contracts are being extended from 10 to 15 years, and the longer term will also apply to the first operators that signed up.

11 private train operating companies have already secured rail access agreements alongside Transnet Freight Rail. Government’s goal is to lift freight rail volumes from below 180 million tons today to 250 million tons by 2030.

Why it matters to the trade. A 15 year agreement gives an operator, and the bank funding its trains or terminals, a much longer stretch to earn back an investment. Certainty like that is usually what moves plans for sidings, terminals, and depots towards signed contracts, the same logic behind the Absa facility for Newlyn we covered last week.

There is a caveat. Transnet’s rail infrastructure manager has itself acknowledged that operators are entering a network that still faces operational challenges, with infrastructure and signalling improvements under way.

Rail work is already generating volume. Afrimat named rail maintenance as 1 of the drivers behind its latest aggregates growth, which is a useful hint about where packages are appearing first.

If you do civil, electrical, or mechanical work near a freight corridor, rail maintenance and upgrade packages are worth adding to your watch list.

15 years of certainty for operators. Watch the civil and maintenance work that follows.

Staying on rail for a moment. In 1990, crews digging the Channel Tunnel’s service tunnel from England and France finally met after boring towards each other beneath the sea. When the 2 ends were surveyed, the centrelines were just 358 mm apart horizontally and 58 mm apart vertically.

That is about the length of 1.5 bricks, across a tunnel with roughly 38 km of it running under the sea.

The crews relied on laser guidance, gyroscopes, and repeated alignment checks against fixed reference points, and the final stretch was adjusted and hand excavated to join up cleanly.

Worth remembering next time you set out a slab or square up a wall. The lesson travels well: check your reference points, then check them again.

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