19
september 2014
international
construction
REGIONALREPORT
Light at the end of the tunnel
>
The bad news is that no-one expects the recovery to be
very spectacular. This has always been true for the European
construction sector – the ‘boom’ of ten years agoonlywitnessed
growth rates of about +3%. At the same time, red-hot emerging
markets like China and India had construction sectors growing
at +10% or more per year, and even other developed areas like
theUS grew at consistently higher rates.
Light at the
end of the tunnel
The European constructionmarket
should return to growth this
year after six years of recession.
However, it will be a slow and
uneven journey back to health.
Chris Sleight
reports.
Peri has supplied formwork, scaffolding and
engineering services to the construction
of a satellite terminal at Munich Airport
in Germany. When complete next year the
facilitywill increase the airport’s capacity
by 11million passengers a year.
F
irst the goodnews. It looks like theEuropean construction
sectorwill grow this year, after six years of falling output.
It will not be a huge bounce-back by any means. The
European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) puts the
increase at just +0.1%, whichwould bring construction output
in the EU to just over € 1,160 billion (US$ 1,550 billion).
Otherorganisationsaremorebullish.Euroconstruct, thegroup
of European forecasting bodies predicts
+1.3% growth for this year. Similarly,
as Scott Hazelton of IHS Global
insight writes in this month’s Economic
Outlook, that company’s forecast for
Western European construction growth
this year is +1.5%.
One of the problems with having so
many sources to choose from is that
it can be difficult to know where the
truth lies. However, the main point is
that the major forecasters see Europe’s
construction industry coming out of
recession this year.
A consortium comprising Bauer,
Alfred Kunz, Baresel, Schaelerbau and
LeonhardWeiss isworking on the
2.6 km Falken rail tunnel on the
Wuerzburg to Frankfurt line. The
tunnel will replace the 158 year-old
Schwarzkopf Tunnel which is too steep
and twisting formodern requirements.
