If the 2010 FIFA World Cup
did wonders for South
Africa's tourism, it also created
potentially new
opportunities for its construction
sector, especially pre-engineered
buildings and its assorted
components. The construction
of stadiums, in part, has
already led to a sharp rise in the
demand for PEBs, says a recent
study by Frost & Sullivan.
India can relive the SA experience
during the 2010 Commonwealth
Games to be held in
Delhi three months from now.
Even otherwise, the prospects
for the PEB market in India are
far greater than in South Africa
which is just one-third the size of
this country. A common thread
between the two developing
countries is the array of opportunities
for prefabricated structures
in nearly every sector,
including education and
health—building schools and
hospitals for urban and rural
poor, for instance.
Developing countries are taking
a liking to pre-engineered
buildings mainly because they
are faster to build; they save
time, cost and labour; they are
visually and aesthetically
appealing; they are customdesigned
and factory-built;
they are easy to install and
maintain; they are light and
easy to transport; and, they are
eco-friendly too.
The size of the Indian PEB
market is currently estimated at
more than Rs 3,000 crore and is
said to be growing at over 30 per
cent annually. While PEB is
becoming increasingly popular,
it is, as yet, far from achieving
the unparalleled prosperity of
its big brother, the mainstream
construction sector. One of the
main reasons is that the quality
of prefabricated buildings is
perceived to be inferior to conventionally-
built structures.
Two years after the slowdown
hit the Indian construction
industry, the pre-engineered
buildings market is once again
hopeful of bagging a sizeable
number of contracts in the
industrial and manufacturing
and residential and commercial
sectors where the opportunities
are plenty.
"After a temporary slowdown
in new industrial activity during
2008-09, new project
announcements in India gathered
momentum during the
second half of 2009-10. Now
more companies prefer preengineered
buildings and
ready-to-use building products
for faster construction and efficient
project management.
Manufacturing industries like
automobile, power, textiles,
engineering goods and services
like logistics, warehousing
and infrastructure are large
users of PEBs," Everest Industries
Ltd, a building solutions
company, noted in its annual
report 2009-10.
The Indian government's
thrust on housing and construction
as well as infrastructure inthis year's budget is expected to
raise the demand for easy-tobuild
and ready-to-use structures.
Another growth driver is
the fact that pre-engineered
buildings occupy less than
30 per cent of all industrial
and institutional buildings
against over 70 per cent in the
United States.
The anticipated demand in
the coming years has encouraged
PEB companies to
increase their capacities. "The
current industry capacity is 1.5
million tpa which has rapidly
expanded from 1 million tpa in
2009," Everest Industries Ltd,
which enjoys a market share of
5 per cent, observed.