The great Dubai crane slump

Dubai during peak construction

The Dubai construction industry is still reeling from the combination of the worldwide recession and the debt crisis, so it is no surprise to learn that the number of cranes in Dubai has dropped by 50 percent from peak construction levels.

In what used to be a literal city of cranes and construction sites, Dubai has cancelled over a quarter of new projects and a leading crane manufacturer has told Arabian Business that crane orders have stopped completely.

"For the last couple of months it is zero, totally dead," David Semple, managing director of Manitowoc Cranes, said of the number of orders the company has received from Dubai.

Glory days far behind

With construction projects falling at a considerably rate within the emirate, crane manufactures are looking at other markets with the likes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi expected to provided lucrative contracts.

There used to be a popular urban myth, that a quarter of the world's cranes were in Dubai. While there are no official figures to the number of cranes in the emirate due peak construction, Semple believes there were close to 2000. Now there have less than a 1000.

Speaking to Arabian Business, he says that the peak time for crane manufacturing in the UAE was the middle of 2007, when the manufacturer was supplying between 10-20 cranes a month, mainly in Dubai.

Construction market still in upheaval

With the global construction market still in upheaval and not expected to fully recover until 2011, it can be expected that Dubai will continue to see projects cancelled. The recent downturn in property prices (by 50 percent in some extreme cases) has seen more than 400 projects with a total value of over US$300 billion had been placed on hold or cancelled in the UAE, a large majority of them in Dubai.

Despite this, some 1845 projects worth a combined US$657 billion are still active in the UAE. The largest of the sectors by number of projects as well as by budget is the commercial and civil sector, valued at US$412 billion.

Relevant articles:

The cancelled Dubai mega-projects | How will the Dubai crisis affect UAE growth? | "Big goals will remain (Dubai's) objectives"

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