London — Britain’s construction industry seized up due to heavy snow last month, prompting the biggest drop in activity since just after 2016’s Brexit vote, an industry survey showed on Wednesday. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slumped to 47.0 from 51.4 in February. It was a bigger decline than had been predicted by any economist in a Reuters poll, which on average pointed to a modest drop to 50.8. The 50-point line divides expansions in activity from contractions. Last month, an unusual Siberian weather system that British meteorologists dubbed "the Beast from the East" brought snow, strong winds and the coldest temperatures in several years to much of Britain and elsewhere in Europe. House building was little affected, but the storm clobbered other sectors, the survey showed. Civil engineering firms suffered their biggest downturn in five years. The survey’s index for commercial work, which had recovered in January and February, staged its big...
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