Saudi Arabian construction sector on track

Dubai: New project awards are starting to emerge from the project pipeline in Saudi Arabia, helped by the kingdom's twin emphasis on social housing and mega-sized industrial clusters. "I think that the amount of construction in Saudi Arabia is rather relevant seeing the rest of the GCC countries," said a spokesman for Nesite, an Italian company specialising in raised floorings.

Construction activity in the UAE has taken a dip, and especially in the wake of Abu Dhabi's recent announcement to scale down some of its large-scale and long-term developments. But the cautious approach is not readily apparent in Saudi Arabia's construction sector.

"We were expecting a faster growth for Abu Dhabi, but our feelingis that we still have to wait a little longer before seeing projects taking a spike."

The company recently won a $10.5 million order from Saudi Arabia to provide its flooring solutions for phase one of the mammoth $667 million Information Technology and Communications Complex (ITCC) being developed by the Rayadah Investment Company in Riyadh. It will be the biggest tech-specific complex in the kingdom.

Design infrastructure

"We will complete the [flooring] project by the end of May 2012 and Saudi Arabia is definitely our biggest market for 2011 and 2012," the spokesman added. Nesite, part of Transpack Group Service, has a production facility in Sharjah's Hamriyah Free Zone since 2009 to add to the one in Italy.

The overall development of the tech complex will feature a central area of four 24-storey towers, two buildings exclusively for R&D, another two for business technology incubator, a library and sports club. It is scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2013.

The masterplan for the complex stems from a joint venture involving the consultancy Zuhair Fayez and Singapore's Jurong International. Zuhair Fayez is also carrying out the detail design of the infrastructure and substructures, while the main project is with Al Rajhi Projects.