09.09.09

Peace to all.
It's a rare date that comes once in a century. The next will be 10.10.10 and for sure we will not be on this earth to cherish it.

A lot has happened this year. Politically I need not say anything as all of us know what was happening. But being in the construction industry, I noticed the trend of construction prices are on the downwards trend as published in the Department of Statistics construction index. The major contributor of this downtrend is the price of steel which ballooned to almost RM5000 per tonne last year. It has now stabilised to circa Rm2000. There is market talk that it will go up again but is left to be seen.

A stable price is desirable to stimulate growth. Bidders are not afraid to quote prices as they can predict slight increases in the price of materials. Unlike the situation last year when bidders simply refuse to tender for fear that their price may be lower and may make a loss as a consequence of spiralling prices.

My hope is that there will be more projects to stimulate the growth of the industry, but not as rapid as the crazy era of the 90s. If you study carefully, there is a corelation between construction pace and defects. Take concrete for example; it must be allowed to cure properly before you can apply load on them. And curing takes time, up to 28 days. Applying load before curing process and taking off the shoring to save costs( to be used at the next stage) will undoubtedly cause failure in concrete.

At 28 million people, Malaysia does not need to build at the pace of the last decade in the last century. Then we will need less imported labour and can relyn on home grown labour and resources. Maybe our quality of life may be better, I hope.

The good came from the Al Mighty and any shortcoming is our own.