A joint venture (JV) of Aveng Grinaker-LTA and Strabag has been awarded a ZAR1.63bn ($125m) contract by the South African National Roads Agency SOC (SANRAL) for the construction of Mtentu bridge in South Africa.
FLSmidth, a Danish engineering services provider, has secured a contract worth over €100m for the construction of cement plantin North Africa.
Asia-Pacific has the largest power generation construction pipeline out of the major regions, with $1.67 trillion worth of investments, according to a new report.
Youssef Ouchagour, construction industry analyst at Timetric’s Construction Intelligence Center, analyses the current state of the global data centre construction market and presents five of the largest data centre projects currently under construction in the world.
The European and Indian construction machinery markets have shown growth this year, while other regions have seen a slow-down, according to Germany’s engineering association the VDMA.Latest research from the Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery arm of the VDMA suggests that the machinery sector has grown in regions including France, Germany and India. The Middle East and North America, on the other hand, have registered drops in machinery sales, in addition to the weak markets of Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. After five years of recession, China still hasn’t recovered from a loss of an accumulated 80% of its volume, says the report.The research also anticipates a drop in the global construction machinery sales due to regional developments, even though German manufacturers are set to register a slight turnover increase of 3%.Johann Sailer, VDMA chairman, said: “This is primarily due to the strong European market.”However, growth might not be equal for all manufacturers, added Sailer: “Depending on where a company’s focuses lie individual results could still be on the negative side.”Building material machinery updateThe report from the VDMA also examines the building material plant and machinery business.The sector is subject to less instability than the construction machinery sector. Nevertheless, manufacturers depend on long-term stable growth markets and these are deficient at the moment — due to the Russian market breakdown. Only Central Europe, India and North America are rated as satisfactory.Overcapacities also present a challenge for manufacturers. When it comes to this, the sector automatically thinks about China, says the association.“We don’t expect suppliers from China to flood the market with their equipment but the trend is clear – when domestic markets are weak companies shift to export markets,” said Sailer.In addition, political and economic uncertainties are present in many sectors. “We don’t want to just keep talking about crises and many current issues do not even have a direct impact on the construction sector. But obviously, news of this kind always affect the investment climate among our customers,” said Sailer.Overall, the VDMA concluded that “the construction equipment and building material machinery industry is indeed a growth sector”.
Sener and Acciona have begun the turnkey construction of the €500M Kathu Solar Park Complex in South Africa.Located in the town of Kathu, in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, the 100MW plant will be able to generate enough electricity to supply 80,000 homes.Both firms will carry out the engineering, construction management and commissioning of the plant until its turnkey delivery. The project, part of the 2010 Integrated Resource Program (IRP) National Electricity Plan, will provide an increase in the country's generation capacity until it reaches 86.8GW in 2030.The project, which uses Sener’s ‘SENERtrough’ technology and a molten salt storage system, is scheduled to commence operations in 2018. It represents the second solar thermal project in South Africa on which both companies are working together, the first being the recently-opened 50MW Bokpoort plant.
A consortium led by ACWA Power has completed work on the Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province.The project, valued at ZAR5bn ($310.3m), offers more than nine hours of thermal storage capacity. The plant will provide 220,000MWh power annually, which is sufficient to power over 200,000 South African households.ACWA Power managing director for the Southern Africa region Chris Ehlers said: “We are here to serve the nation and to contribute to its development.“Our commitment to the development of South African economy beyond reliably supplying renewable energy at a cost competitive tariff is demonstrated by the ZAR2bn worth of locally sourced components made in South Africa that has been used in the construction of this plant and the creation of 1,300 construction jobs.”The CSP project is the first in a series of investments by ACWA Power in South Africa. The company also plans to start construction on the 100MW Redstone CSP Project in Northern Cape. At the same time, it is waiting for the outcome of tender submissions for a 300MW coal-fired plant in Mpumalanga and a 150MW CSP plant at Northern Cape.
Sumitomo and IHI have bagged a turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to build an 110MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Mozambique’s capital Maputo.