Summer is already here for contractors in the UAE

In the desert outside Al-Ain the temperature in the UAE is forecast to cross 40°C this week for the first time this year. The event might not be a major one, but it’s a timely reminder that the cool days of winter are over and summer is fast approaching.

Many contractors working in the emirates will already be thinking that the summer, and the traditional slowdown in decision making and contract awards, has started already.

“We have tendered AED24bn of work over the past year, and only one of those projects, worth about AED1bn has been awarded, and unfortunately it didn’t go to us,” says an international contractors working in the UAE. “In other countries tendering is a sign of a healthy market because tenders get awarded, I have to tell my head office that it doesn’t work like that here, we might be tendering like crazy, but there are still limited projects that actually go ahead.”

Other contractors are facing the same problem. “I have over three pages of tender submissions in Abu Dhabi that we are still waiting to hear who the winner is,” says a Dubai-based contractor. “It causes big problems for us as a business. Potentially we have commitments to do billions of dirhams of work. The reality is most people are probably just wasting our time.”