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The slowdown in the construction industry due to the global financial crisis has meant that “the infrastructure now has time to catch up,” says Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) MEP director Charles Lever.
Lever spoke to MEP Middle East at the Construction Week 'Building at Height Safely' conference in Dubai. “The pace of building was so rapid during the boom period that infrastructure tended to lag behind general construction,” says Lever.
The slowdown, combined with the push towards sustainability and ‘green’ building, has meant an increased focus on overall health, safety and quality issues. However, Lever says the Dubai MEP market still stubbornly lags flourishing areas like Saudi Arabia and even Egypt.
“A lot of unfinished projects in Dubai will invariably be scaled back so they can be completed in the context of the current market conditions,” says Lever. This means that the infrastructure associated with such redefined projects will go a long way in determining their new value.
Lever notes that the liquidity in the market has improved slightly, to the benefit of small to medium contractors, although 2010 is likely to be a low-growth year all round. Nevertheless, the market has stabilised from the lows of 2009, and there is renewed confidence among MEP contractors.
“The high level of attendance at an event like 'Building at Height Safely' augurs well for the future; it is a testament to the renewed focus on health, safety and quality,” says Lever. He adds that DSI, which has focused on regionalisation from an early stage, is well-positioned to continue to grow, having secured recent flagship contracts in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
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