Big Interview
“Let’s say machine-wise it could be the same,” he says, “but obviously we would modify the machines as the foundation would have to be deeper than Burj Khalifa [a figure of 80m is the speculated estimate].” Any alterations to the machines will be done in Germany, and the former crane-man says that like company’s such as Wolffkran, Bauer is lucky to be able to utilise the brain-fund back in Europe. “I was the one that closed the deal for the 45 cranes in Mekkah Clock Tower (project) and the customer came to Wolff because he wanted the Rolls-Royce of cranes, the very best and we could get engineers there on site from Germany. And likewise with Bauer, you can say that Germany has the best industrial solutions worldwide. “I am a Palestinian but I lived in Germany for 25 years and I tell my customers that you will pay more, but they will never let you down. You can rely on them. I always tell my sales people we are working for the premium suppliers. Service is from day one to the last day, when you talk to the customer with the technical knowledge we have we are able to educate and explain to them why we are the premium company.” He then reflects: “But sometimes the customer is more price conscious and we have to convince them. My own technical knowledge may be relatively small but I can take a team from Bauer who work 24 hours to find the right solution. They call it the foundation technology department and they talk directly.” While it works with Zahid Tractor in Saudi, elsewhere the company is selling direct to customers. He explains that Bauer International’s almost threedecade presence in the region means that in the UAE, Qatar and others, it will not be moving to a dealer/ distributor arrangement any time soon. “Bauer International has a long list of customers now and many of them have ten Bauer machines. It helps that Bauer International got here first and people wanted to copy their success. We have a strong market share of 55% in the UAE. It used to be higher but through globalisation and the downturn a lot of customers and machines have left the market.”
While its machines remain in widespread use and, through Bauer International, have seen decades of service in the market, a physical office arrived relatively late in 2005. However in terms of what was happening in the UAE at the time, the timing proved to be ideal. “If you look at the Wolfkrann’s, Liebherr’s and Potain (with NFT), they came at the right time. At the beginning of the boom. And so it was with us, the brand was already relied upon.” The subsequent slump in the UAE has left an effect on many companies in the sector and Bauer is no exception but Jadellah reveals that the company is determined to grow, and is moving to bigger premises and yard and adding to its workforce. “Theoretically we should be losing people but we are doing the opposite to stay ahead. But to you have to be flexible and you have to be creative. If you want to be number one in the market you have to be clever.” While he won’t go as far as saying that Bauer will follow others down the rental route, he won’t rule it out, “we are studying the model, and we are considering investing in second-hand and trade-in machines. “You have to realise that the market is quite saturated, there are 400 machines in the market. Prices are coming down, so of course fewer customers are willing to spend on a $1 million machine. Our customers are spreading the businesses, they are going to Iraq [Bauer Group won the $1.9 billion contract to build the Mosul Dam in November], they are going to Jordan, so we also need a very good aftersales service. We are working to be in every corner.” One market that is certainly on the radar is Qatar. He argues that soil conditions there are so tough that he sees few other companies capable of delivering what will be required other than Bauer. “We are already established in the market and running. We are keeping an eye on what’s going on, but of course we cannot wait for the market to get running too. It’s a risky business being the biggest market leader. Going up is always easy but staying up is the challenge.”
$1.2 billion Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion.
Building an Empire
The Empire State Building was the highest building in the world for forty Years. It was constructed in New York (USA) an era when American cities such as Chicago and New York competed to have the highest skyscrapers. With a 102 stories it was the tallest building in the world for
forty years. Only when the first tower of the World Trade Centre was completed in 1972 was it deposed as the highest building. The architects, Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates, were given the brief of creating the tallest building in the world. To achieve this they decided to use a steel frame as the basic construction technique. The builders, Starrett Brothers and Eken Incorporated were skilled in using this construction method. Due to its size it originally had 64 elevators to aid the distribution of people up and down the building. When completed, the buildings overall height was 1472 feet (448 metres). This included the antenna at
the top of the building. The original idea was that the antenna would be used to dock airships. However, this was dropped when it was realised that people were unlikely to enjoy disembarking an airship, that was tethered to the building, at the height of over a thousand feet. The building cost over forty million dollars and this was in a time of economic depression. Some referred to the building as the building that should never had been. One reason for the rapid completion was that the owners wanted rent from the spaces available as soon as possible. In its day, the Empire State Building was constructed using up to date technology. A substantial
concrete base was laid as a foundation to take the weight of the steel framework of the building. All the steel sections were prefabricated, that is, manufactured in a steel mill and transported to the construction site. The sections were manufactured to exact sizes to within 2mm tolerance and prepared so that they could either be bolted together or joined with rivets. It only took three days for the sections to be manufactured in the steel mill, transported and positioned in the framework as part of the buildings structure. Once the steel framework was fixed in positioned it was then finished with an outer skin of stone.
February 2012
CONSTRUCTION
MIDDLE EAST
21