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Private new capital expenditure (capex) rose 1.0 per cent in the March quarter 2024 to be 5.5 per cent higher than a year ago in seasonally adjusted, chain volume measures, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said: “Business investment grew in the non-mining industries in the March quarter, rising 3.3 per cent. This was partly offset by a fall in mining capex, which was down 4.7 per cent.

“Transport, postal and warehousing saw the largest rise of any industry, up 15.8 per cent. This was from more investment in vehicles and ongoing investment connected to large infrastructure projects.”

New equipment and machinery capex rose by 3.3 per cent, with non‑mining industries growing by 4.6 per cent, offset by mining falling 3.2 per cent.

“Expanded investment in data centres contributed to a large rise in equipment and machinery capex for the information media and telecommunications industry, up 60.6 per cent.

New building and structures capex fell by 0.9 per cent.

“Mining drove the fall in new investment in building and structures, which was down 5.2 per cent. There was reduced spending on major iron ore projects and LNG projects during the quarter,” Mr Ewing said.

Queensland had the largest rise of the states and territories, up 5.9 per cent in the March quarter. The biggest fall was in Western Australia, down 6.7 per cent, reflecting the fall in mining capex.

Figures released today also include updated expectations of planned capex for the financial year. Businesses revised up their expected capex spend for 2023-24 by 2.5 per cent (in current prices) since the last estimate three months ago.

This release also includes the second estimate for planned capex for 2024-25. This rose 6.8 per cent compared to the first estimate three months ago.

“The rise in planned capital investment shows that businesses expect continued growth in new capital expenditure for the remainder of this financial year and the year ahead.

“The information media and telecommunications industry was the stand-out, with an extraordinarily large rise in expected capex from further planned investment in new data centres.

“The electricity, gas, water, and waste services industry also expect a big rise from planned investment in renewable energy infrastructure,” Mr Ewing said.