Saudi construction sector rebounds as workloads increase: RICS

Saudi Arabia is witnessing a recovery in construction activity due to headline infrastructure workloads increasing, RICS said in its latest Middle East Construction and Infrastructure survey on Sunday.

The increase in infrastructure workloads was broad-based in the fourth quarter of 2018, with water and utility projects, road, rail and energy projects all experiencing robust growth.

New business enquiries and new workloads rose marginally in the Kingdom with survey takers also reporting of an improvement in operating conditions in the last quarter, it added.

Participants in UAE reported an upturn in infrastructure workloads as well, although at a slower pace, with energy projects seeing a particular rise in activity.

“The outlook for infrastructure workloads over the next 12 months remains nuanced across the region, but harbor and port projects are generally among the sub-sectors expected to see the largest increase in workloads this year,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia (52 percent) and Oman (42 percent) face skills shortages, with survey respondents citing it as another significant factor holding back activity.

BIM managers remained the most in demand across the region for a second quarter, with contributors from Oman (59 percent), Saudi Arabia (52 percent), UAE (41 percent) and Qatar (37 percent) all reporting a shortage of them, the survey found.