With construction work declining in recent months, have heavy lift firms focused more on oil and gas projects?
The heavy lift industry is primarily associated with construction. Particularly in the Middle East, cranes are invariably linked to the build sector and were once the source of many urban legends surrounding the percentage of the world’s cranes located in Dubai. But with the construction sector suffering from a slowdown over the past few months, heavy lift companies have focused more of their attention on oil and gas based business in the Middle East. “The upstream oil and gas sector shows a trend of gradual development of the Middle East infrastructures. This has resulted in a potential growth in the market for boom cranes, as oil and gas and its related projects have proved to be more resilient through 2009 in the present scenario, due to the down trend of the construction sectors which are expected to take off again during the second quarter of 2010,” Mohammed Razzaqi, product manager of Darwish Bin Ahmed and Sons reveals. Frank Hillerbrandt, managing director of Stahl Crane Systems
