November constructsteel newsletter

Nearly a fifth of US metro areas lost construction jobs between September 2020 and September 2021. An economic recovery for the construction industry is being undermined by Washington’s failure to boost infrastructure investments and continuing supply chain disfunction, members of Congress in the House are being urged to quickly pass an infrastructure bill that already received broad, bipartisan support in the Senate.

The UN has praised a pledge made by 40 of the world’s leading cement and concrete manufacturers to cut CO2 emissions by 25% by 2030, and to be net zero by 2050. The promise by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has been signed by companies from around the world, including Cemex, China’s CNBM, CRH, HeidelbergCement and Holcim. GCCA members account for 80% of the global cement industry volume outside China, while also including several large Chinese manufacturers.

Construction growth to outpace manufacturing this decade, says new global forecast by Oxford Economics and Marsh McLennan companies Marsh and Guy Carpenter. Construction will be an engine of global economic growth in the decade to 2030, with output expected to be 35% higher than in the ten years to 2020, according to a new global forecast. Authors say extra output in the decade will amount to $4.5 trillion, giving construction an output worth $15.2 trillion by 2030 and 13.5% of global GDP.

Construction prices in Germany rising at fastest rate in 50 years. Material shortages and a boom on the German housing market are fuelling the biggest price increase in building costs since 1970. According to new figures from the Federal Statistical Office, the cost of building conventionally manufactured residential buildings rose 12.6 percent year-on-year in August 2021. The last time such a strong increase was recorded was in November 1970, when prices shot up 13.1 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.

The World Green Building Council is targeting COP26 attendees with a call for governments and industry to take integrated action on issues affecting climate. New report published is intended as a call to action for the built environment industry and policy makers to respond to the climate crisis with both the building and infrastructure sectors acting together. Buildings and infrastructure – must be on a clear path to decarbonise at the latest by 2050 and have made significant progress by 2030.

Vietnam has announced plans worth $10.5bn to build or upgrade 16 railways with a total length of 4,800km over the next 10 years. The aim is to improve the performance of the domestic system and better connect it with international routes. The Vietnamese government wants to encourage private sector investment from companies and individuals outside Vietnam.

India issued a tender for 21km long rail tunnel between for the Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor. Work will include a 7km undersea stretch, to be constructed using tunnel boring machine and the new Austrian tunnelling method. The total cost of the 508km corridor, which will be India’s first highspeed line, has been set at $15bn

The European Union makes first investment in hyperloop. Dutch engineering spin-off Hardt Hyperloop has been awarded €15m by the European Commission, the first time that the EU has directly funded the development of the ultrafast transport concept. The funding will also progress the European Hyperloop Centre in Groningen, set to demonstrate lane-switching for a high-speed hyperloop system in 2023.

The US and the European Union have ended a dispute over steel and aluminium tariffs and said they would work on a global arrangement to combat “dirty” production and overcapacity in the industry. US and the EU plan also to address the existential threat of climate change and production overcapacity in the steel industry, which is one of the biggest CO2 emitters in the world.

World’s largest 3D-printed neighbourhood is being created by Texan 3D-printing company Icon, working with American homebuilder Lennar and Danish architect Bjarke Ingels Group. The 100-home development in Austin will use Icon’s Vulcan construction system, capable of building 3,000 sq ft homes using the company’s proprietary walling system. 3D printing is taking off around the world as it continues to be used on larger projects.

A University of Tokyo team has created calcium carbonate concrete, a new type of material formed of waste concrete and carbon dioxide captured from the air or industrial exhaust gases. Although described by the university as a “stable” and “durable construction material”, it is not strong enough to be a replacement for structural concrete in large buildings.

Built by Nature, an innovation and funding organisation aimed at accelerating the construction of timber buildings across Europe has been launched. The scheme has been backed by big-name firms including Lendlease, Arup and Ramboll; others involved include the sustainable home provider jointly owned by Skanska and IKEA, BoKlok, and architect Waugh Thistleton.

Trimble and Microsoft have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of construction by building the Trimble Construction Cloud powered by Microsoft Azure. By leveraging the Microsoft cloud, the two companies will collaborate to develop, build and deliver industry cloud platforms and solutions that connect people, technology, tasks, data, processes and industry lifecycles.

Ferrovial sells Spanish Infrastructure Services business to Portobello Capital for €186m. It’s a part of company’s ongoing strategy based on prioritising infrastructure development, construction and management. Deal covers transport infrastructure maintenance and upkeep services, healthcare and social welfare support services, facility management and industrial services. When the sale happens, Ferrovial will acquire a 24.99% stake
in Portobello Capital for an estimated €20m. Completion of the deal is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2022.

Four senior Katerra women lead US expansion of modular builder, Modulous. London headquartered modular housing start-up has established a US base in Seattle led by four former executives of Katerra, the high-tech modular pioneer that went bust in June this year. The move came after Modulous raised £5m from venture capital firms. Unlike Katerra, which invested in factories around the US before collapsing under debt amid the pandemic, the Modulous approach is “asset light”, with manufacturing and installation outsourced.

Ibstock to invest £50m in brick slips factory in UK. The new venture, Ibstock Futures, aims to grow the brick maker’s presence in the market for façade products in off-site and modular construction. Ibstock said that the UK market for brick slips was approximately 120 million slips a year, and growing fast. However, at present, automated plants in mainland Europe supply around two-thirds of the brick slips used in the UK, with the remainder cut manually from facing bricks in the UK.

North America’s top cement maker Cemex posted a net loss of $376 million in the third quarter, sending shares tumbling 4%, after the company was hit by supply chain disruptions and a spike in energy and transport costs. The company’s net loss came even as Cemex reported a 10% rise in quarterly sales, helped by strong demand in the United States and Mexico. Company had implemented a second round of price increases in the reported quarter for its cement and ready-mix businesses in the United States, with prices up 2% from the prior three months.

French construction giant Vinci’s has published its third quarter financial results, showing revenues for the first nine months of 2021 to be €35.8 billion – up 3% compared with the same period of 2019. In the third quarter alone, the company generated revenue of €13.2 billion, up 1% on the equivalent period in 2019. The company highlighted the strong performance of its Construction and Energies divisions, with a nine-month combined order intake of €32.5 billion.