The head of Saint-Gobain, the world's biggest building materials group, expects conditions in the U.S. construction sector to improve from 2009.
"The environment in the United States in the construction sector is not going to improve in 2008. We do not expect a pick-up before 2009," Piere-Andre de Chalendar told French daily Les Echos.
Chalendar also said in the interview that because Saint-Gobain was producing and selling most of its products in the same country, a weak dollar had a limited impact on the group, which makes some 15 percent of its sales in the United States.
He said a weaker dollar, a slowdown in the U.S. residential home market and the subprime crisis were pushing down the valuation of companies.
"There can thus be acquisition opportunities to seize," he said.