Playing Devil’s Advocate – What’s the Outlook for Municipal Water Infrastructure Investment?

Bluefield’s team of water experts discusses infrastructure investment and whether the market is heading up, down, or sideways. Some water industry pundits have said the pandemic is much ado about nothing. However, the Bluefield team doesn’t share this level of optimism, in fact, the team’s optimism at the start of the pandemic has eroded over the last six months because of extended state quarantines, remaining high unemployment, and mercurial, if not incoherent, U.S. federal guidance. Last month, the Bluefield team presented its updated water sector forecasts in light of COVID-19, global economic uncertainty, industrial demand, and macroeconomic changes. As a number of Bluefield clients have questioned our assumptions about the historical, recessionary data and dynamic macroeconomic inputs that we use in our research, this discussion sheds light on conversations we are having at Bluefield Research. Reese Tisdale, Erin Bonney Casey, and Mariel Marchand come clean about why they think the market is poised for a reckoning, despite select signals for optimism.