Finance & Funding

A new report highlights the growth for sales of construction machines into the Indian market. This market did see a drop in the 2014-2015 period but has been growing quickly since 2016. In 2016 52,000 construction machines were sold in India, an increase of 37% over the previous year, according to the report by Off-Highway Research. The report also suggests sales of construction machines will continue to grow for the next five years in India, climbing by as much as 50% to hit an impressive 70,000 units in

Guangxi Liugong Machinery (LiuGong) has bought a controlling interest in Chinese piling machine specialist Shanghai Jintai Engineering Machinery (Jintai). The US$85.24 million deal has seen LiuGong buying 51% of Jintai from its parent, by Guangxi Liugong Group. LiuGong Group, parent company of LiuGong, has owned a 51% share of Shanghai Jintai Engineering Machinery since the second quarter of 2011. At that time LiuGong Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai Mechanical and Electrical

Construction work for the second stage of the Chusovaya Bridge in Russia is commencing. The contract for the project is being handled by construction firm Stroytransgaz. The new bridge will span the Chusovaya River in Russia’s Perm Region. The contract is worth US$260.3 million and was awarded by a division of the VTB Group, the Perm Concession Company. Financing is being supplied jointly by regional and federal budgets as well as from additional sources.

Construction for a key congestion cutting contract in Colorado is coming shortly.

Steady growth in the US market for transport infrastructure construction in 2018. This prediction comes from a new report by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). The report suggests that the US transportation infrastructure market will rebound slightly next year, following a 2.8% drop in 2017.

Argentina is refining the country’s road development plans. The programme calls for investments of US$16.7 billion for the work, which will be carried out on 7,000km of roads. The 16 projects will be run as Public-Private Partnerships. These will be split into several corridors, including Corridor A, Corridor B, Corridor C, Corridor D, Corridor E, Corridor F, Corridor G, Corridor H and Corridor I. The work is being split into three phases. The first tender process is now open and will close in April 2018.

Kenya is on track to build a new highway connection from the port of Lamu to Isiolo. The project is for a 530km highway and will cost US$620 million, with the route running through Garissa. The final route has yet to be identified but it seems likely that the highway will skirt a number of the country’s protected areas that are subject to tight environmental requirements and on which Kenya relies for much of its tourist trade. The project will be carried out by the Lamu Road Consortium (LRC), which comprise

The contract to widen a key section of one of Northern California’s most congested highways has now been awarded. The US$107 million package of works will see the building of a new carpool and express lane along a 14.5km stretch of Interstate 680 in the Bay Area. The lane will be built along the northbound stretch of the highway between the Auto Mall Parkway and Highway 84. The southbound express lane will also be upgraded. Construction on this section is being funded by local sales taxes and the work is

Funding for a new highway project in Tunisia is being provided by the African Development Bank. The funding comes in the shape of a loan worth US$145.8 million. The new highway will be sited in the north of the country and its construction is expected to help develop transport and trade and to boost the country’s economy.

Sri Lanka is setting out plans for improvements to around 3,400km of rural roads. The work will largely be paid for through a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The work will cost US$172.1 million in all, of which $150 million will be in the shape of the ADB loan and the remaining $22.1 million coming from the Sri Lankan Government budget.