international
construction
july-august 2013
WORLD NEWS
UAE
The Intermat Middle East
construction equipment exhibition
will take place from January 14 to
16, 2014, at the Abu Dhabi, UAE,
National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
The exhibition had been scheduled to
take place a week later in January,
but the dates clashed with the World
Future Energy Summit. Next year’s
event will be the third time the show
has taken place. Some 250 exhibitors
are expected to participate, and 7,500
visitors are expected to attend.
TURKEY
The European Investment
Bank (EIB) has provided a further
€
200 million (US$ 260 million) loan
to support an upgrade to Turkey’s rail
corridor between the capital, Ankara,
and the country’s largest city, Istanbul,
to a high speed line. This additional
funding brings total EIB support for the
country’s first high speed rail line to
€
1.5 billion (US$ 1.95 billion). The 490
km rail line will interconnect with the
Marmaray Bosporus rail tunnel, also
supported by EIB funds.
UK
The estimated cost of building a
new North/South high-speed rail link
in the UK has jumped by UK£ 8 billion
(US$ 12.3 billion) to UK£ 43 billion (US$
66 billion). The increases are due to
new measures to minimise disruption
and impact to the environment,
including two extra tunnels, one
in west London and the other near
Birmingham. This line is expected
to open in 2026, with construction
scheduled to start in 2016.
BANGLADESH
The World Bank
has approved a financial package
worth US$ 400 million to improve
Bangladesh’s flood defences. The
funds, which consist of a US$ 375
million loan and US$ 25 million
grant, will be used to upgrade the
embankment system to protect against
tidal flooding and frequent storm
surges in six coastal districts.
EGYPT
Exhibition organiser
Veronafiere, which runs the Samoter
exhibition in Verona, has announced
the launch of MS & Africa Middle
East – a trade fair for stone design,
technology, earthmoving and building
machinery which will take place in
Egypt this December. The inaugural
event will be
held in Cairo, from 9 to
12 December.
HIGHLIGHTS
GLOBAL
Emerging markets to
drive global growth
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to lead the way over
the next 12 years
A
new report,
Global Construction 2025
, from Global Construction
Perspectives and Oxford Economics shows that developing countries
will drive construction growth over the long-term. This is true of
different regions of the world, while key countries such as Qatar and Nigeria
will be among the fastest growing.
Jeremy Leonard of Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford
Economics said of the broad economic picture, “Emerging markets will
continue to grow significantly more rapidly than the developed world, but
that growth will be at a slightly less robust pace than in the past. We’ve seen
a change in some of the drivers in some of the emerging markets.”
He highlighted the move in China towards a more consumer-driven
economy and the slow pace of reform in Brazil and India as examples of this.
“People who expect China to grow by +10%, as it has done for the last
decade, are going to be disappointed. Growth is going to be nearer +7%,”
he said.
While emerging markets are expected to see robust growth, the report’s
authors were down-beat on the prospects for some key developed markets.
“We can’t expect much more than +2% growth over the next decade or so,”
said Mr Leonard. “We tend to talk about Europe as a lost decade of growth.
Even when we get out of the current cyclical downturn, we only see about
+1.8% growth in 2015 – 2020,” he added.
Overall, global construction output is expected to grow at +4.3% a year
over the next 12 years, compared to +3.5% for GDP growth. Western
European construction is expected to under-perform, with an annual average
of just +1.0%, the same rate as the developed countries of Asia-Pacific. Latin
America is also expected to be below trend with +3.5% annual construction
growth.
North American markets are expected to be more or less on the global
trend at +4.2% annual growth, while Eastern Europe (+4.6%) and the
Middle East and North Africa (+4.9%) are expected to be ahead of the curve.
The most robust growth is expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa (+5.0%) and
emerging Asia-pacific (+6.9%).
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For more information, visit
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6
Graeme Macdonald will take over
as CEO of construction equipment
manufacturer JCB at the end of this
year, when incumbent Alan Blake
retires.
Mr Macdonald was
previously
COO
of
JCB and became CEO
designate on 1 June.
During his 16 years at the
company, has also been
managing director of the
backhoe loader business
and president of JCB Inc –
UK
JCB names new CEO
the company’s North America base
in Georgia, US.
Mr Blake will remain as a senior
advisor and board member of JCB.
CANADA
Mayor
arrested
After taking office at the end of last
year promising to end corruption,
Michael Applebaum, the mayor of
the Canadian city of Montreal, has
resigned following his arrest on 14
fraud charges.
Mr
Applebaum
said
the
accusations against him, which
relate to real estate projects in
Montreal during his time as a
borough mayor between 2006 and
2011, were unfounded. The charges
include defrauding the government,
breach of trust and conspiracy.
Mr Applebaum replaced former
Montreal mayor Gerard Tremblay,
who resigned in November last year
amid separate allegations related to
illegal donations.
And Mr Applebaum and Mr
Tremblay are not the first former
Mayors to face corruption charges
in recent months. In May, Gilles
Vaillancourt, the former mayor of
Laval in Quebec, Canada, was one
of 37 people arrested over charges
of construction-linked fraud and
ties to organised crime.
The resignations and arrests come
amid an on-going and high-profile
public inquiry into the corruption
in construction industry in Quebec.
– the Charbonneau Inquiry.
The inquiry has already heard
testimony from politicians and
senior figures from the construction
industry detailing mafia kick-
backs and a web of corruption
involving the public procurement
of construction contracts.
IMAGE FROM MANICA ARCHITECTURE
