Construction World June 2017

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JUNE 2017 2
COMMENT
EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER
Wilhelm du Plessis
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Erna Oosthuizen
LAYOUT & DESIGN
Lesley Testa
CIRCULATION
Karen Smith
TOTAL CIRCULATION:
(First Quarter ’17)
4 762
PUBLISHER
Karen Grant
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
Crown Publications cc
P O Box 140
BEDFORDVIEW, 2008
Tel: 27 11-622-4770 • Fax: 27 11-615-6108
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.
PRINTED BY
Tandym Cape
@ConstWorldSA
ON THE AGENDA
Sustainable Construction World
In October Construction World will publish its third
supplement dedicated to sustainable construction.
There is a big focus on how the design of a building
can make a project sustainable, but this supplement, in
line with the focus of Construction World , will illustrate
how the building of a project – from the cement that is
used, to the equipment, to facilities management – can
contribute to a structure’s sustainability.
Best Projects 2017
Enter your project for our annual Best Projects. This
is the only award in the country that recognises
excellence across the entire construction world. It is
being held for the 15th time.
Turn to pages 18 and 19 for an overview of the
awards. The deadline is Friday, 8 September.
The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. In stark contrast with the
South African building and civil industry, the Ethiopian
construction industry is booming – resulting in the increased
production of cement.
According to the latest Construction
Industry Development Board (cidb) business
condition survey for small and medium-sized
enterprises, business confidence in both
the building and civil engineering sectors,
registered below the neutral 50-point mark
for the first quarter of 2017.
This is the seventh consecutive quarter it has registered a sub-
50 point result. In the general building sector, building activity
weakened. Despite this, the sentiment did edge up one point to
46 on the index. The civil contracting sector declined by four
points to 37, primarily caused by weaker construction
activity, profitability that is under pressure and more intense
tendering competition.
According to the cidb, civil confidence is at its lowest level in
nearly five years. This is a cause for concern, more so because
the level of dissatisfaction was across all grades and provinces.
In conclusion the report states that there is some improvement
in activity envisaged for the building sector, but that this was not
the case for the civil sector.
In stark contrast
One of the most buoyant construction markets in Africa is that
of Ethiopia. It is experiencing a construction boom because of a
marked increase in public investment in development projects
as well as private investment.
Up until fairly recently, infrastructure development in Ethiopia
was hampered as cement was imported at huge costs. However
owing to a growing number of cement factories in the country,
Ethiopia has now, in fact, started exporting cement. This
has been brought on by incentives such as cheap electricity,
government-provided land and tax incentives.
The country is working towards a target of producing
27 million tons by 2020. According to a Bloomberg report,
South Africa produced 17 million tons in 2015. This puts
the remarkably swift expansion of the Ethiopian market into
perspective – cement production has increased 10-fold in the
last 10 years. It seeks to dominate the cement trade in the wider
Eastern African region.
Wilhelm du Plessis
Editor