Russia, Poland to Lead European Construction

LONDON-A new report on global construction conducted by British research group Oxford Economics shows emerging markets will overtake developed countries to become the biggest part of the market in the next decade. In Europe, the East should outstrip the West, with growth in the next decade averaging over 100%, led by Russia and Poland.

The report, Global Construction 2020, showed that building output worldwide should grow to $12.7 trillion in 10 years’ time, measured in 2008 prices, compared with $7.5 trillion now. Developed countries are expected to lag emerging markets, with zero growth in 2010 but growth accelerating by 4.4% in 2011. Construction markets in US, UK, Canada and Australia will rebound quicker but construction in major emerging markets such as India and China will see much higher levels of growth than developed countries through 2020. While the latter will overtake US as the largest construction market by 2018, growth in India will accelerate even faster.

“We expect growth in construction output in emerging markets will be more than three times that of developed countries over the next decade,” said the report, sponsored by the construction groups Cemex, Holcim, Lafarge, and Orascom Construction Industries.