2019 Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index Annual Average

The average annual value for the 2019 Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) was higher than the corresponding value for the previous year CEPCI. The final value edged higher for the year despite a generally downward trend in the monthly CEPCI values throughout 2019. Nine of the 11 month-to-month changes in CEPCI values in 2019 were lower than the previous month’s value, but since the CEPCI began the year at a higher level, the average for the year ended up higher than the previous year.

The overall CEPCI started 2019 at over 618 (618.7), and ended up the year under 600 (at 592.1), but despite that, the yearly average for 2019 was calculated to be 607.5, which is 4.4 points higher than the annual average value for the previous year (2018) and is substantially higher than the annual value for 2017 (567.5).

The Equipment subindex tracked the same path as the overall CEPCI throughout 2019, starting out the year at a value of 756.9 and ending the year at 716.9. The annual average for the Equipment subindex was 740.0. The average values for the equipment subclasses can be found in the table below.

The Construction Labor subindex saw less variation than Equipment, but experienced small increases in six out of 11 month-to-month transitions, resulting in an overall rise from the beginning of 2019 to the end. The Construction Labor subindex began last year at 333.9 and ended the year at 338.5. The annual average for this subindex was 336.1.

The Buildings subindex also had a smaller degree of variation than Equipment, but only saw 2 month-to-month increases, with the rest being small declines. The Buildings subindex began the year at a value of 601.6 and ended the year at 585.7, with an average annual value of 594.4.

The Engineering & Supervision subindex for 2019 had the least variation and most consistency of the four major subindices. There were three month-to-month increases, versus seven declines and one instance of no change. The Engineering & Supervision started 2019 at 316.9 and ended the year at 312.7, with an annual average of 315.0.

The table below shows the annual average values for the overall CEPCI as well as the annual averages for all of the subindex components of the CEPCI. For additional information, visit www.chemengonline.com/pci .  

CEPCI 2019 Yearly Averages