The ground is shaking in Qatar. Not a cataclysmic event but rather a man versus machine show of force. Tremors have reached a new magnitude shifting the construction landscape towards earth moving equipment taking the industry by storm. The country’s non-hydrocarbon sector, especially the construction market, has been capturing more than 20% of the country’s GDP in recent years driven by strong economic activity and high levels of public sector infrastructure expenditures ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Qatar's GDP growth forecast increased to 6.5% from 5.5% at the beginning of this year spurred on by a double-digit surge in construction activity.
Further, the outlook for construction remains very encouraging for the coming years, supported by a population increase rate reaching around 9.5% and the government’s effort to upgrade the infrastructure base as part of its ambitious multiyear plan, the Qatar National Vision 2030. The Qatari government has already boosted its infrastructure construction spending with more than $100 billion in the coming five years geared to finance construction of a number of major road networks, stadiums, metro, railway, ports and airport projects.
This robust construction activity has created great demand for building materials helping expand this industry to new heights. Cement, concrete and asphalt consumption has reached a record level, while the construction equipment industry has become highly competitive with local players backed by global heavyweights capturing the lion’s share of the total demand volume.
Komatsu, Caterpillar, Volvo, KAWASAKI, Liebherr, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Sanny, Deere, Bobcat, Ingersoll Rand, MAN and many other leading names have much of the foothold in Qatar’s construction market, with both high quality and the reputation of distributors to meet the requirements for parts, labor and repairs. In high demand are particularly excavators, backhoes, skid steer, forklifts, bulldozers, cranes, earthmoving and tunneling equipment, road building and road surface equipment, tractors and dump trucks. Qatar’s oil and gas sector is as well by itself a major user of heavy equipment.
All indicators show that strong demand for capital machinery across a wide range of industries in Qatar will drive the construction equipment market to new peaks in the next five years.
More local, regional and global contracting companies are competing for the execution of infrastructure, residential, commercial and oil and gas projects in Qatar.
With high infrastructure spending already underway, Qatar represents a buoyant market that offers fantastic growth opportunities for local, regional and international contractors alike and accordingly for all suppliers of construction machinery and building materials.
15 September
Varouj Tenbelian
