Construction World June 2017

COMMENT

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.

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.

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 15 th time. Turn to pages 18 and 19 for an overview of the awards. The deadline is Friday, 8 September.

Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

@ConstWorldSA

www.facebook.com/construction-worldmagazinesa

EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith

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

TOTAL CIRCULATION: (First Quarter ’17) 4 762

PRINTED BY Tandym Cape

www.constructionworldmagazine.co.za

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.

2

CONSTRUCTION WORLD JUNE 2017