EDI TO R I A L
POWER OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Concept and content by Akshay Bhatnagar Susmita De Sushmita Sarkhel Ghalib Abdullah Mohammed Fahmi Rajab Product Manager Shivkumar Art Directors Sandesh S. Rangnekar Minaal G. Pednekar Design M. Balagopalan Khoula Rashid Al Wahaibi Maryam Al Sarmi Production Manager Govindraj Ramesh Photography Rajesh Burman Sathyadas C. Narayanan CORPORATE Chief Executive Sandeep Sehgal Executive Vice President Alpana Roy Vice President Ravi Raman Senior Business Support Executive Radha Kumar Translator Mustafa Kamal
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Optimism rebounding
T
he first week of the year marked the inauguration of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It was a momentous occasion for the entire world, more specifically for the construction community. Right from the beginning it was a challenge to convert this dream building into a reality from the construction perspective. Since the start of excavation in January 2004, more than 30 on site contracting companies worked on it. At the peak of construction, more than 12,000 workers and contractors representing over 100 nationalities were on site. It consumed over 45,000 m3 of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes to construct the concrete and steel foundation. Burj Khalifa's construction involved 330,000 m3 of concrete and 39,000 tonnes of steel rebar. The man-made marvel took 22 million man-hours for the construction. The tower set-up a world record for the highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade at a height of 512 metres. The total weight of aluminium used on Burj Khalifa is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft and the total length of stainless steel bull nose fins is 293 times the height of Eiffel Tower in Paris! It was a real challenge for the construction professionals as a building of this kind of scale and magnanimity was never attempted before. Burj Khalifa’s inauguration was one of the very few positive developments for the global construction industry in the last year or so which was otherwise mired with indefinite project delays, bad debts and soaring inventory. The current issue of OER Dossier focuses on the construction and building materials industry. Apart from talking to the industry leaders on their key products and services, the issue also analyses the major trends and developments that have impacted the sector in recent times. Most of the companies in the construction and related sectors faced uncertainty during 2009 due to prevailing adverse circumstances. Most of the contracting companies struggled to add new orders to their book. Many of them were forced to take-up contracts at wafer thin margins. The building material manufacturing companies had to cut back production as inventories were piling up with few takers in the markets. Fortunately, the government continued to invest in large infrastructure projects that supported the sector but slowdown of the real estate projects severely affected the industry players. Though majority of the companies believe that 2010 is also expected to be a challenging year but they are optimistic that they are in a much better situation to improve on their 2009 performance. A fair picture will emerge probably towards the early April as most of the head honchos are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting anxiously for the first quarter results. Enjoy reading! Akshay Bhatnagar akshay@umsoman.com OER DOSSIER March 2010 1