24-25th June, 2010
69th EUROCONSTRUCT Conference in Dublin

Almost 150 delegates from Europe and beyond attended the 69th EUROCONSTRUCT Conference in Dublin Castle, at which speakers will present analysis and projections for the industry in 19 EUROCONSTRUCT countries. Furthermore, a look at business strategies that can position the industry for the upturn was given. Areas assessed included financing, new markets, consolidation, innovation and green construction.

The current recession will go down as the most challenging in the industry for decades. Consturction output fell by -8.8% in 2009 in the EUROCONSTRUCT area. A further contraction of -4.0% is expected in 2010. By the end of this year the European construction industry will have been in recession for three years.

According to Annette Hughes, Director of DKM Economic Consultants, the Irish member of EUROCONSTRUCT, "several countries have acted to lessen the impact of the recession with fiscal stimulation packages in 2008 and 2009, which supported construction. However the priority now has firmly shifted towards fiscal consolidation, which will have negative consequences for the industry, particularly for civil engineering. In a number of countries, notably Spain, Ireland and Portugal, the crises came on top of the collapses in local housing markets, leading particularly severe contractions.
Job losses have been substantial: the sector employed 13.5m workers in 2007, or 7% of the total workforce, but more than one million construction jobs have been lost in Spain and 400,000 in Portugal alone. In total we estimate the sector has lost more than 1.5 million jobs since 2007.”

Figure 1. – Gross Domestic Production, Construction Output



Source: 69th EUROCONSTRUCT Dublin, June 2010

Looking across Europe, there is a clear dichotomy between the Western European countries and the Central & Eastern European members of Eurostat. At one extreme, Ireland, Spain and Portugal are expected to record further deep cuts in construction output in 2010. At the other, Poland has been barely scathed by the global crisis and its industry is expected grow by 10% in 2010.

As a rule, in Western Europe the construction recession has been more severe than the overall economic downturn. The opposite is the case in Central & Eastern Europe, where the construction sector has acted as a stabiliser for the overall economy.

Looking forward, the prospects for Western Europe are for a sluggish but gradual pick up in construction activity in 2011 (+0.6%), gathering pace in 2012 (+1.8%). Ireland, Spain and Portugal will do no more than stabilise at a deeply depressed level however. Central & Eastern Europe, dominated by Poland and the Czech Republic, is expected to see much stronger growth, of 3.7% in 2010 and almost 10% per annum in 2011 and 2012. The key drivers for this are new non-residential construction and civil engineering, both benefitting from EU Structural Funds.


Annette Hughes
Organisator of the 69th EUROCONSTRUCT Conference



Please get in touch with your local EUROCONSTRUCT partner institute for further information.

Additionally two reports, the "Summary Report" and the "Country Report", published by EUROCONSTRUCT are available.
You can order them from your local EUROCONSTRUCT member.

For questions regarding a particular construction market please feel free to contact one of our local EUROCONSTRUCT partners.

Please find your local partner institute here