NZ's largest hydraulic mobile crane with a boom reaching 136m. Video / NZ Crane Hire
Major tower, crawler and mobile cranes are still dominating skylines, with numbers down just under 4 per cent but Auckland numbers fell 12 per cent lately.
The Auckland office of global construction cost consultancy Rider Levett Bucknall today released its latest quarterly survey which showed 123 cranes working on projectsnationally, down only 3.9 per cent in main centres since Covid's outbreak.
Auckland crane numbers fell 12.5 per cent from last year's first-quarter high, down 11 big cranes.
Chris Haines, a RLB director, said uncertainties from the pandemic had not yet hit the construction industry as much as expected.
"There is only a small decline in crane numbers recorded since our last index," he said.
Hawkins, Fletcher Construction and Naylor Love had only one tower crane each in Auckland, "the lowest numbers we have seen from them since 2014", Haines said. Crane locations had also changed, shifting from Auckland's CBD into many suburbs and around the key transport nodes.
Crane numbers fell by less than 4 per cent this year. Photo / Greg Bowker
A Hawkins spokesperson confirmed the survey's finding.
Rick Heard, Naylor Love chief executive, also confirmed a solo Auckland crane from his firm but said "ask again early next year".
An executive at a major construction firm says he has more offers of work than he can handle.
"Despite Covid, we have work coming out our ears and are getting many inquiries and people wanting to negotiate big projects with us. It shows the importance of being able to walk the talk," said the construction boss who didn't want to be named.
That business is not only negotiating a number of new contracts but examining far more.
Haines said the index counted fixed tower cranes, long-term heavy crawler cranes and long-term mobile cranes.
Wellington had record crane numbers, up eight since March due to Government-related work in many different sectors including new offices and civil infrastructure, he said.
New crane numbers rose most on residential construction sites nationally, up 54 cranes since the last quarterly survey. Auckland has 80 per cent of all residential tower and large crawler cranes.
Haines expressed concern about new high-rise construction jobs, saying due to the simultaneous drop-off in commercial, retail, hotel, tertiary education and civic sector projects.
The survey counts major tower and crawler crane numbers. Photo / Greg Bowker
"However, Government support for shovel ready projects remains far higher in the horizontal infrastructure sector which is focused on much fewer in-ground type trades and a very focused part of the market. Many projects recommended by Crown Infrastructure Partners remain in a holding pattern and dependant on whether the Government chooses to support them from the remaining unallocated Covid support package," Haines said.
The survey is for the period from July 1 to September 30.
StatsNZ's latest data showed that in the year to August, non-residential building consents were valued at $6.8 billion, down 9.4 per cent on last year. Non-residential construction prices, measured by the capital goods price index, rose 4.5 per cent in the June 2020 year.
Nationally, 37,467 new dwellings were consented in the August year, up 5.1 per cent from the August 2019 year.
New dwelling consents issued were 14,879 in Auckland up 3.7 per cent, 5653 in Canterbury up 8.8 per cent, 4105 in Waikato up 1.4 per cent and 3163 in Wellington up 15 per cent, StatsNZ said in its latest data issued.
Ross Taylor, Fletcher Building chief executive, said in August the value of legacy buildings and infrastructure work to complete had fallen from $2.2b in February 2018 to about $0.6b currently.
The construction division's forward order book, excluding legacy projects, had been rebuilt to comprise around $2.4b of work with a materially better margin outlook, and significantly lower and more appropriate risk profile, Taylor said.
