The Middle East is among few bright spots in what remains a tough global market for quarrying and construction equipment manufacturers and aggregate suppliers. Take Qatar for example. With the Fifa World Cup in 2022 getting ever nearer, the country has ramped up its infrastructure project activity. According to MEED Insight, in 2014 contract awards reached their highest-ever figure, at just over US$33.3 billion. This represented a staggering 42% jump on the previous year.
The pace of contract signings has been maintained in 2015, with Qatar awarding more packages on the Doha Metro, and other important public infrastructure works. In total, MEED Insight reports that Qatar has $78 billion-worth of projects in the pre-execution phases, equating to a huge growth opportunity for regional and international contractors, consultants and suppliers alike.
A Qatar-based Quarry Report in this issue of Aggregates Business International provides a perfect example of the kind of purchasing power available to companies based in the country and other parts of the Middle East. Having been impressed with a mobile screen and impact crusher from one leading crushing and screening OEM, Al-Mohsen Engineering Co., one of Qatar’s leading aggregates suppliers to major construction companies, has now taken delivery of three further impact crushers from the same OEM, and three more screens, one of which a heavy-duty scalping screen. This huge order is needed, says Al-Mohsen, to meet aggressive demand for aggregates from big construction industry players involved in some of Qatar’s major new road development programmes.
Further statistics highlight growing demand in the Middle East construction equipment market. Latest ISC figures show that earthmoving equipment sales in Saudi Arabia and the UAE were up 13% in H1 2015, compared to the same period in 2014. A stark contrast to Africa (-25%), China (-37%); and Other Asia (- 8%).
The Quarry Profile in this edition of ABI examines the impact of a high-quality cone crusher - manufactured by a leading European-headquartered firm - which is said to have ‘revolutionised’ production at a leading aggregate supply firm in the United Arab Emirates – and led to the company placing a further order with the same manufacturer for a jaw crusher, two impact crushers, a primary feeder and three screens. Boasting 150 employees and an annual production of 3.5-4 million tonnes of premium quality aggregates, produced in a variety of sizes, the UAE-based company in question looks well set for further growth.
A major contrast to the demand within the Middle East aggregates and quarrying and construction equipment markets is the level of demand across both markets in China. China Aggregates Net (CAN), which specialises in independent Chinese aggregates market analysis and statistics, believes aggregate consumption will decline by a “relatively large number” in 2015, having actually risen by an impressive 25% to 15 billion tonnes in 2014, from around 12 billion tonnes the previous year. This year’s decline is thought by experts such as CAN to be due to China’s depressed economy and macro-economic pressures.
As I stated in my Comment piece in the last edition of this magazine, a new Off Highway Research forecast is for annual average Chinese construction equipment sales for 2015-19 to be around 160,021 – almost half the number of sales (319,399) in the years 2010-14. Given such a dramatic 2015-forecasted drop in Chinese aggregates and quarrying and construction equipment demand, is 2016 likely to see any upturn? It will be fascinating to see how the heads of China’s big name and increasingly export-driven quarrying and construction equipment OEMs plan to respond to the tough trading climate in their vitally important domestic market.
