Turkish Construction and Contracting Industry

The Turkish Construction and Contracting Industry is one of the leading, most competitive and dynamic construction/contracting industries in the world. A total of 22 Turkish construction/contracting companies were selected for the Top International Contractors List prepared by the Engineering News-Record in 2007; which made the Turkish construction/contracting industry the world's 3rd largest in that year, ranking behind those of the USA and China. [ [http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=88855 Turkish contractors rank at top three] ]

Turkish Contracting in the International Market

During the periods in which investments slowed down in the public and private sectors, foreign contracting services gained importance. The shrinking of the economy in Turkey and the bottleneck in the construction sector resulting from it, has forced construction companies to concentrate more on business abroad.

The opening of the Turkish contractors to foreign markets started at the beginning of the 1970s. The first country to which Turkish contractors exported their services was Libya, where they started their projects by importing the necessary technology from European countries.

Later on, the growing Turkish contracting services expanded to other foreign markets such as Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iran. Particularly during the 1970s, 90% of the expatriate works undertaken were realized in Arab countries. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Turkish Contractors have oriented themselves more towards the former Soviet Union countries. In the 1990s, due to the economic depression and the political uncertainties in the Middle Eastern and North African countries, the Turkish Contractors have focused predominantly on the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe and Asian countries. In this framework, they have undertaken important projects in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Central Asian Republics, Germany, Pakistan and the Far East. Today, Turkish Contractors are working in 63 countries across four continents by providing services that can compete with international contracting standards in financial, administrative and technological dimensions.

Turkish Contractors have established very good relations with their clients, have achieved firsthand information about the region and the working environment, and whether by providing Turkish products and construction materials or by being provided with an area to work, they have accomplished a wide range of projects.

The total volume of work undertaken by Turkish Contractors has reached 110 billion US Dollars. The Turkish Contractors Association (TCA) has currently 139 members from Turkeys main contracting companies. [ [http://www.tmb.org.tr/firma.php TCA Members List] ] 90% of the members of TCA is composed of engineers and architects. These highly qualified professionals are responsible for the realisation of 70% of domestic construction works and 80% of over 4200 projects undertaken in 69 countries.

The works of Turkish contractors can be evaluated over three decades plus the period between 2000-2005. [ [http://www.tmb.org.tr/index.php?l=eng The Turkish Contractors Association] ]

1972 - 1979 Period

Most of the works undertaken during this period were in North Africa and especially in Libya (72.54%) and later on, in Saudi Arabia (15.44%), Iraq (7.25%), Kuwait (4.71%), Greece (0.06%) and Iran (0.01%).

The most important field of activity in this period was housing (32.14%), followed by harbours (18.11%), road/ bridge/ tunnel works (11.67%) and urban infrastructure projects (8.19%).

1980 - 1989 Period

Most of the works undertaken during the second decade were realized in Libya again, despite a relative decrease in proportion (55.05%). Saudi Arabia (24.38%) and Iraq (11.16%) were ranking respectively second and third thus maintaining the position they had occupied during the first decade. The emergence of the former Soviet Union was a new development that occurred during this period (3.50%). Other countries in which Turkish contractors started working were Jordan, Yemen, Iran, the USA, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

During this period, housing activities (38.90%) and urban infrastructure projects (17.52%) increased and were followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel (6.69%) and agricultural projects (6.33%).

1990-1999 Period

In the third decade, the trend changed completely. While the share of the Russian Federation increased to (36.19%), Libya's share decreased drastically to (11.19%). Libya was followed by Pakistan (6.92%) and Turkmenistan (6.67%). The works undertaken in the former Soviet Union countries, together, amounted to 61%. The differentiation of the countries in which new projects were undertaken was a novel development characteristic of this decade. Pakistan (6.92%), Turkmenistan (6.67%), Kazakhstan (6.55%), Uzbekistan (4.29%), Bulgaria (2.79%), the USA (2.69%), Azerbaijan (2.30%) and Croatia (1.86%) emerged as new markets. Other important developments were the considerable decrease in the proportion of works in Saudi Arabia (3.44%) and disappearance of Iraq from the scene. The “other” category comprised 33 countries with a proportion of 8%.

Despite a decrease in the proportion of housing works (23.89%), it remained the first ranking activity. However, this did not mean a decrease in housing works in terms of value. The value of the housing projects undertaken during this period was also high. Housing was followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel works (12.84%), industrial facilities (9.65%) and commercial centers (8.13%).

The highest proportion of the projects undertaken during this period was in the Russian Federation and the other former Soviet Union countries.

2000 - 2007 Period

The period after the year 2000 is a period where markets showed even more differentiation and where there was specialization in certain types of projects. The number of countries, in which Turkish contractors worked, increased considerably and that caused the percentage of work in each country to decrease relatively. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation maintained the first rank (14.66%) and was followed by Romania (11.46%) and Kazakhstan (9.55%).The interesting developments in this period are, apart from Romania, the emergence of the United Arab Emirates (7.75%), Afghanistan (5.34%), Ireland (4.66%), Qatar (3.33%), Algeria and Morocco as new markets. After the interventions that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rebuilding activities in these countries were closely followed by TCA member companies, just as it was in the rest of the world.

When the types of work undertaken during this period are considered, road/bridge/tunnel works occupy the first rank (24.47%), followed by industrial facilities (14.52%), airports (8.33%), social and cultural facilities (6.54%) and housing (6.08%).

The total value of work undertaken amounted to 5.4 billion US Dollars in 2004,9.3 billion US Dollars in 2005, 15,9 billion US Dollars in 2006 and 19,5 billion US Dollars in 2007.

Current Development Trends in Turkish International Contracting Services

The first ranking activity abroad in the past years, has been the housing projects. After the interesting transformation in the 2000-2005 period , during which project differentiation started to take place, there was the realization of industrial facilities and also road-bridge-tunnel projects, petro-chemical facilities and airport projects, which required high expertise, project management skills and high technology. The proportion of these projects in the total work volume reached 59%. Meanwhile, the proportion of housing projects decreased considerably. Also, during the same period, there was a shift from small projects to bigger and technology-intensive projects, while market differentiation still continued.

The efforts put towards increasing the share of traditional markets resulted in market differentiation and an increased attention was given to certain countries in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. In parallel with the soaring oil prices, an increase of work opportunities in oil rich countries is expected to take place.

Also, while consortiums are being formed between domestic and foreign companies, there is a tendency towards global brands and in this context, Turkish companies have become large scale investors and managers in the countries where they once made their first entry by being mere contractors.

Turkish contractors, who have signed their names under more than 4200 projects in 69 countries across four continents mainly concentrated their activities in the Eurasian region, and have recently focused on penetrating into the African market. While new job opportunities in Latin America and South East Asia have been observed, it is foreseen that oil rich countries of the Middle East will certainly continue providing jobs. In addition to this, if stability is secured in Iraq, the sector will bring in significant earnings from this market as well. Currently, 83 companies among the 139 members of TCA are working abroad. Each year, the names of the biggest 225 contracting companies of the world are listed on the web-site of the Engineering News-Record (http://www.enr.com), based on the performance of these companies in the preceding year. In the list published in 2005, there are 14 TCA member companies. As a matter of fact, if there was continuous contact with the afore mentioned magazine about the projects in the course of accomplishment by TCA member companies, there would definitely be more than 14 members of TCA figuring on the list.

Turkish Contracting Companies

in alphabetical order

* [http://www.calikenerji.com.tr CALIK ENERGY]
* [http://www.enka.com ENKA]
* [http://www.eser.com ESER]
* [http://www.gama.com.tr GAMA]
* [http://www.stfa.com.tr STFA]
* [http://www.tavconstruction.com TAV]
* [http://www.tekfen.com.tr TEKFEN]
* [http://www.tepeinsaat.com.tr TEPE]
* [http://www.ucgengroup.com.tr ÜÇGEN]

Contracts/Projects awarded to Turkish Contracting Companies

*Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Project(BTC)
*Kashagan Projects
*Samsun-Ceyhan Pipeline Project

Links

* [http://www.ydmh.gov.tr/indexen.cfm?action=detail&yayinID=2050&icerikID=2207&dil=TR Undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade - International Contracting and Technical Consultancy Department]

* [http://www.tmb.org.tr/index.php?l=eng The Turkish Contractors Association (TCA)]

* [http://www.yem.net/yem07/english.aspx The Building Information Center (YEM)]

* [http://www.yapi.com.tr/turkce/default.asp Yapi.com.tr ]

* [http://www.yemfuar.com/english.aspx International TurkeyBuild Fairs Istanbul ]

* [http://www.invest.gov.tr Invest in Turkey]

* [http://www.atcea.org.tr Association of Turkish Consulting Engineers and Architects]

* [http://www.deik.org.tr/pages/EN/DEIK_Anasayfa.aspx?IKID=10 Foreign Economic Relations Board]

References and notes