SOUTH AFRICA FORMWORK MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Drivers

Rapidly expanding construction industry in South Africa is propelling the formwork market growth. As per the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC), in 2017, South Africa accounted for the largest share in terms of construction projects in the Southern African region (including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) with 47.3% of the total projects. The construction sector contributed around 3.9% to the national GDP in 2016; however, the industry has been static since the 2010 Soccer World Cup project.

According to the African Financing Partnership, in 2016, the international development finance institutes (DFIs) and African DFIs funded 10.6% and 4.7% of projects throughout South Africa respectively, with China funding 8.2% of the projects. Under the government’s National Development Plan (NDP) project, South Africa government is focusing on investing US$ 64.4 billion in public infrastructure over the next few years. This is expected to positively affect the growth of the construction sector, which in turn, could boost the demand for formworks.

South Africa Formwork Market: Restraints

Weakening value of rand is mainly restraining the market growth. The commodity markets were largely impacted, and the subsequent decrease in revenue affected major construction firms including Murray & Roberts and Group Five. A depreciating currency results in decreasing profits for construction companies across the country, thus affecting the demand for construction projects.

As per the Work Bank data the global economic slowdown has caused South Africa’s economy to grow at a slower rate, resulting in sluggish growth of the construction sector. South Africa’s rand value had dropped significantly with respect to dollar losing 26% of its value in the six months after turmoil gripped the Chinese markets in 2015. With a decreasing value of rand, project costs had risen due to the rising prices of construction materials including steel and oil.