What Happened to Construction Companies in 2018?

As 2018 draws to a close, Chanticleer may hold court on the annual awards for corporate winners and losers but here at Construction Advisor we’re still trying to make sense of some the recent announcements coming out of the industry.

Let’s recap on just the last couple of months:

1. RCR Tomlinson enters administration
2. LendLease announces $350m writedown
3. Acciona announces that Light Rail Project will cost the company $1B
4. And today Adelaide Brighton copped a whack to its share-price after a profit downgrade.

So in an environment where we are experiencing an ‘infrastructure boom’, some of the biggest players are getting smashed… this was supposed to be a gold-rush… what happened?

Will 2019 be merry? Will the industry profit from this infrastructure rush or were too many ‘gun-shy’ after the mining boom contraction and under-priced their services in traditional tenders? 

Well, there are a couple of certainties in 2019 – concrete is going to get expensive (tunnels, road, rail and bridges have never seen these sort of levels), and people (particularly specialists) are going to be hard to find and cost a lot.

Fa la la la la and a happy new year!