Bulldozing businesses stopped in their tracks

In the absence of work, hundreds of heavy equipment machinery used in the construction sector have ground to a halt in the country.
From backhoes to flatbeds, dump trucks to bulldozers, many of the construction-related vehicles have been parked in the Industrial Area since January.
“The beginning (of 2009) simply didn’t look right. As of today work has dropped by as much as 40%, with May and June being the worst. And it continues to dip,” an industry leader with close to 300 small and heavy construction vehicles of all types for rental, yesterday told Gulf Times on condition of anonymity.
Those with short- or long-term contracts for up to 2011 are comfortably hedged against losses though they fear the trend will eventually hit them as well.
The smaller businesses, meanwhile, have already started working at loss.
“There is simply no work. For example a Caterpillar 320C (excavator) could earlier make us QR120-130 an hour (including the driver) but currently we are letting it out for even QR85 per hour,” said another entrepreneur, who owns 60 machines.
“Because of high expectations with the Qatari market, giant companies from neighbouring countries and as far as Turkey entered here making it highly competitive for the local operators over the past four years,” he explained.
“It’s just that they can face the slowdown, while we can’t.”
For the sake of gauging the magnitude of the investments involved, a brand new Caterpillar 320C excavator usually costs around QR450,000.
“But that was during 2008 when the local dealerships of heavy-equipment vehicles had backorders running into months. Today, we are even offering in-house financing to dump the ballooned inventories,” a salesman for an Asian-manufactured machinery’s Qatar distributors said.
That also means less income for the owners. “I was making QR21,000 a month with my forklifts in December 2008. This year’s average has been QR4,000 a month,” an operator who has been a resident of Qatar for three years conceded.
“I have even tried to sell some of my industrial vehicles but who would buy at such a stage.”
Their only hope, industry sources say, is the resumption of state-backed infrastructure projects and continuation of industrial work at Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed.
“Work is expected to pick up in Qatar after September but until then everyone has their fingers crossed,” an industry veteran maintained.