THE UAE has replaced Saudi Arabia as the GCC’s largest construction market in 2012 in terms of contract awards, a newly released annual report on the sector, has revealed.

According to Deloitte Middle East’s report – GCC Powers of Construction: Meeting the challenges of delivering mega projects, the UAE’s share of contracts worth $16.2 billion was four per cent more than the $15.6 billion of contracts awarded in Saudi Arabia.

This is the first time since 2008 that Saudi Arabia has not recorded the largest value of construction awards in the region. The largest construction deal awarded in Saudi Arabia in 2012 was the contract to expand the Masjid Al Haram in Madinah.

Qatar was the third most active GCC construction market in 2012, with $10.4 billion worth of contracts awarded. Transport infrastructure dominated Qatar’s construction sector, with four of the five biggest contracts awarded for major transport projects. Ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup, Qatar’s infrastructure spend is expected to reach $150 billion. Kuwait was the fourth most active construction market in 2012, with $8 billion worth of deals awarded. The largest of these was the long-awaited $2.6-billion deal to build the Subiya Causeway, which had been in the pipeline for almost a decade.

Meanwhile, the report, which is the fourth publication in its series and the only one of its kind amongst the financial services industry in the Middle East, said, in a region where there is an acute deficit in terms of infrastructure, the ingredients for capital projects could not be better.

The I&CP (infrastructure and capital projects) market is growing rapidly with governments announcing projects across the Middle East region, utilising trillions of petro-dollars over the coming years, it said.