Meed | UAE leads slight dip in market

UAE leads slight dip in market

29 August 2024

The Gulf projects index dipped by 1.2% in the five weeks from 12 July to 16 August, breaking a 16-month growth streak driven by a spate of project announcements.

The plateauing of the index just above the $4tn mark, at roughly $4,090bn, comes after a record period of growth that has witnessed the index rise by 21% over the course of 2023, and a further 7% again year-to-date in 2024.

This period of expansion also saw the GCC projects market break the $3tn mark for the first time, before rising to its current value of more than $3,417bn.

UAE contraction

In the past month, this growth spree was halted by a 6.6% contraction in the UAE projects market, which shed $56.6bn in value, led by at least $40bn in budget corrections for legacy and active UAE masterplans as MEED Projects revised down the initially announced value of more than half a dozen schemes.

In Oman, the projects market value slipped by 7.2%, or $17.6bn, amid the consolidation of overlapping budget values for major schemes in the sultanate’s emerging green hydrogen sector.

The Iranian projects market also shed 4.6%, or $13.3bn in value, due to the completion of the IGAT-XI oil pipeline project.

Amid these technical corrections, the Saudi projects market nevertheless continued to expand, adding 2.5%, or $46bn, in value amid the upward revision of budgets and the launch of new projects, including in the power sector. Saudi Power Procurement Company notably launched two new projects: the $3.6bn Riyadh 16 IPP (3,600MW) and the $2.4bn Al-Rais IPP (2,400MW).

The other GCC markets and Iraq variously rose or fell by percentages in the low single digits.

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John Bambridge