Construction and Infrastructure

Alan Swaby looks at one of the largest crane manufacturers in the world—which ironically comes from one of the smallest countries in the world.

Watch any strong man competition and the odds are there will be a Finn in the final. For a country with a population of far less than Greater London, Finland manages to create some of the biggest and strongest specimens in the world.

China Investment Corporation (CIC) has acquired an 8.68 per cent stake in Thames Water, the UK water and sewerage company.

The purchase is the Chinese sovereign wealth fund’s first in the UK, and comes after George Osborne's visit to China this week, where he urged China to invest in UK infrastructure projects.

The price CIC paid for the stake has not been disclosed.

CIC was set up in 2007 to make strategic investments using China’s £2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.

Netherlands-based construction and infrastructure specialist Ballast Nedam has won a €25 million contract for expansion works at a refinery in Suriname.

Expansion works to double the processing capacity at Tout Lui Faut Refinery to 15,000 barrels a day are due to commence in April. Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname, the state oil company of Suriname, has awarded Ballast Nedam the general civil and steel piling works contract for the project.

Ensor Holdings has announced its acquisition of Technocover, the Wales-based manufacturer, supplier and installer of security products.

Technocover's products are used for the protection of critical national infrastructure assets operated by UK and European utility companies within the water, energy, communication and transportation sectors.

Ensor said it believes Technocover’s services to government-driven national security initiatives demonstrate resistance to recessionary pressures.

Winning the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup has generated a construction boom in Qatar that is attracting interest from all over the world. One company that will be helping to ensure that demand for construction materials is met is Qatar National Cement Company.

Since its inauguration in 2008, investment holding company Foulath has established its position as one of the most comprehensive steel producers in the Middle East, and has developed a unique business model that it is now transferring to Egypt and Oman. Ben Sansom reports.

Robert Tarazi, managing director of Qatar’s leading ready-mix concrete company Beton WLL, talks to Gay Sutton about preparing the company for significant growth.

UK infrastructure developer Aeternum has revealed plans to develop an energy park near Blackburn in Lancashire, as well as new residential housing.

The company has acquired the 118-acre site of the former Sappi Paper Mill in Feniscowles to the south-west of Blackburn, which it will develop alongside sites at Castleford and Bromborough for mixed use (using the existing attributes of its power station, reservoirs and brownfield land where the mills were situated), together with new homes within the borough.

The first phase of the controversial HS2 rail line is expected to get the go-ahead from the UK government today.

Transport secretary Justine Greening is expected to back the high-speed 100-mile rail link from London to Birmingham, which will be completed by 2026.

The first London-Birmingham phase will cost £17 billion, while the total cost incorporating the second phase—a further section of the line extending to Manchester and Leeds—is expected to reach £32 billion. This northern extension would be completed by around 2032/33.