September constructsteel newsletter

The Federal Aviation Administration will award about $1 billion to repair and improve terminals at 85 airports across the country. This is the first round of grants over a five-year period from the $5 billion Airport Terminal Programme, one of three aviation funding programmes created by the infrastructure act. The infrastructure act contains another $5 billion for air traffic facilities and $15 billion for aviation infrastructure.

The world’s largest real estate company, Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), has predicted a 14.1% year-on-year increase in US construction costs by the close of 2022, citing financial pressures such as inflation, labor shortages, supply chain challenges, COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is the largest jump since CBRE began making cost projections in 2007.

A full 91% of firms are having trouble staffing job-sites, an Associated General Contractors of America survey found. Construction firms are struggling to find workers to such a degree that it’s threatening the success of federal investment in infrastructure and manufacturing projects, the Associated General Contractors of America said.

British building firms suffered a squeeze on activity for a second month in a row during August as new orders slowed to their lowest level since the summer of 2020 in the latest sign that a UK recession is looming. With inflation at a 40-year high, construction businesses reported that their customers were putting new work on hold, forcing them to stop buying materials and hiring staff.

Guanjuato in central Mexico has proposed a double track rail link stretching 144km between its major cities. The project goes to plan and the railway line will connect five of the largest cities across the state – León, Irapuato, Celaya, Salamanca and Silao – and may also connect to neighbouring states. It has been reported that the development stage could cost a total of US$2- 2.5 million. The project was previously put on hold due to financial constraints during COVID-19 but conditions are said to have improved but the project will rely on private finance under a revised financial structure.

China is making $1.1 trillion in funds available for infrastructure spending, a decisive shift away from a focus on controlling debt toward supporting a lockdown-ravaged economy. New construction starts by floor area in China slumped 45.4% in July, the biggest fall in nine years, and property investment was down 12.3% from July last year as woes in the country’s property sector grind on.

The UAE is developing its transportation networks at great speed and using innovative new methods to reach ambitious goals – plans US$23bn of  infrastructure investment. GlobalData expects the UAE market to grow 4.2% in real terms this year, as the country continues a strong recovery following a difficult two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, since the launch of Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Plan in 2016, the total value of real estate and infrastructure projects has crossed US $1.1tn as per
Knight Frank.

Aarsleff Ground Engineering carried out the world’s first trial driving of cement-free ultra low-carbon precast piles manufactured using Cemfree concrete. Cast and cured at Centrum Pile’s Newark headquarters, the piles were driven in nonworking positions at a working Aarsleff site. The trial is part of a wider scope of work package plans Aarsleff’s sister company, Centrum Pile, are involved in as a partner in the LOCOWAG (Low-Carbon Concrete within Aggressive Ground) project.

The survey, which looked at 300 of the world’s largest capital project owners and contractor construction professionals across Europe, North America, and APAC, showed that Europe is the most digitally mature region with the highest proportion of digital strategies in place. 96% of surveyed construction professionals in Europe are very or fairly optimistic about their organisation’s growth prospects for the next year – up significantly from 89% in the same survey in 2021. Despite the higher uptake of digital technology in the region, 92% of European construction professionals still have “concerns about the future of digital transformation, highlighting the need for a more human-centric approach.

Sphera, a carbon-reducing concrete start-up, has secured approximately €2.3 million in funding, including significant grants from BEIS and Innovate UK. The UK-based company develops technology capable of transforming waste and other by-products into a carbon-negative aggregate for concrete. Sphera’s flagship aggregate, OSTO, is being launched for concrete blockwork, making traditional carbon intensive blocks NetZero.

The world’s tallest mass-timber structure, has opened in Milwaukee. The 86.6m, 25-storey building contains 259 apartments with a gross floor area of 493,000 sq ft, featuring a swimming pool on the sixth storey and a top floor amenity level. The structure is supported on concrete-filled steel pipe piles, minimising material quantities and reducing installation time.

Los Angeles-based startup Azure is using recycled plastic to 3D print prefab homes. Azure says it can build homes 70% faster and 30% cheaper than “traditional home construction methods.”

The Chinese government says it has completed an 800m-long rail track to test “permanent magnetic levitation” (PML) technology. In contrast to conventional maglev track, which requires electromagnets, PML lines rely on alloys of rare earth metals, typically neodymium or samarium. These produce magnetic fields greater than 1.2 teslas, compared with 0.5-1 tesla from a conventional iron or ceramic magnet. This is thought to be sufficient to propel two-carriage trains with a capacity of 88 passengers at speeds of up to 80km/h.

US modular housing start-up Vantem is planning to build 15 factories in the US to produce affordable and energy-efficient homes following a successful funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a firm set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to accelerate low-carbon projects. Founded in 2020, the North Carolina-based company has already made more than 280,000 sq m of modular units for apartment buildings and single-family homes in Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and the Caribbean.

Swedish contractor Skanska reported that their second quarter profit decreased roughly 1.3% year-over-year, or less than one cent per share. Meanwhile the contractor’s revenue reached roughly $4.4 billion for the April through June 2022 period, up 18% when adjusting for currency effects like inflation. Skanska has continued to be selective about bidding on projects in Central Europe since the war in the Ukraine began earlier this year.

The contractor Webuild has revealed that in the first half of 2022 the company had sales of €3.9 billion and an order backlog of €47.2 billion, of which 74% comes from low-risk markets, such as Italy, Central and Northern European countries, the US and Australia. The half year revenue figure is up 24% on the same period last year. Over 70% of sales are
from ‘abroad’ with just under 30% from the contractor’s home market of Italy.

French Construction and concessions giant Vinci group has released its financial results for the first half of 2022, reporting revenue growth across all divisions by 11% on an actual basis and up 8% likefor-like, compared with the first half of 2021. In France, which represents 47% of the group’s construction market, revenue totaled €6.4 billion, up 4% on an
actual basis.

Backed up by its highest earnings in its history last year, Austrian construction company Strabag reported an output volume of €7.5 million, a 9 % increase when compared with 2021. The contractor also posted a positive showing in neighbouring nation Germany, which saw its order backlog grow by €2 billion. Despite continued growth and its second best half-year result, the Vienna-based company’s EBITDA and EBIT earnings both declined from 2021.

CRH expects full year earnings to grow by 10% on a like-for-like basis after increasing prices by double-digit percentages in the first half. The Irish firm reported a 13% rise in first-half core earnings to $2.2 billion and that it expected that to rise to $5.5 billion for the year against a “continually challenging cost environment”. Profit margins grew by 90 basis points to 14.7% to the end of June.

Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates company Holcim has announced that it has closed the sale of its business in Brazil to CSN (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional) for an enterprise value of US$1.025 billion.