The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2018 | Page 13

WORLD NEWS
UK’s construction industry is at its lowest ebb since
December 2012, according to a recent industry survey,
despite a marginal improvement in activity in October.
According to the latest UK Construction Purchasing
Managers Index, which is published monthly by IHS Markit
and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply
(CIPS), the balance of construction firms expecting an
increase in business activity over the next year, fell to its
lowest level in 58 months.
Job creation also remained subdued in response to the
industry’s pessimistic outlook which, according to Duncan
Brock of the CIPS sends a ‘chill down the spine’.
Plummeting to the lowest optimism since December 2012,
purchasing managers blamed a slowdown in work from
commercial clients, vanishing civil engineering projects,
and an increasing weariness over Brexit for the lack of
performance, weak pipelines and slowdown in job hires.
An increase in residential work helped push the index into
growth territory for the first time in four months. However,
commercial and civil engineering activity both fell again with
civil engineering experiencing its softest patch for around
four and a half years.
The UK’s construction sector is at the lowest
ebb in five years.
India needs to double the number of
its airports in 15 years, according to
Jayant Sinha, Indian Minister of State
for Aviation.
He says that there will need to be 100
new airports built before 2032 if it is to
meet growing demand, thereby doubling
current infrastructure.
They will be built through an investment
of INR4-trillion (USD60-billion).
Gujarat’s new green airport.
Americas: Shell strengthens LNG bunkering infrastructure with
US-based barge. The energy major has agreed a long-term charter with
Q-LNG Transport for a new 4 000cbm-capacity LNG delivery barge.
The ocean-going vessel will supply marine LNG to customers along
the US southern eastern coast and support cruise line demand for
the fuel.
The LNG bunker barge will be owned and built by Q-LNG
Transport, LLC, and operated by Harvey Gulf International Marine,
LLC. According to Shell, the LNG bunker barge will be highly
efficient and manoeuvrable and will feature an innovative transfer
system, enabling it to load LNG from large or small terminals and
bunker a range of vessel types
Earlier this year Shell launched the 6 500cbm-capacity LNG
bunker barge, Cardissa, which operates out of the gate terminal
in Rotterdam. 
Shell has also inked an agreement with Carnival Corp & plc to
supply LNG to the world’s first LNG-fuelled cruise ships. Currently
under construction, the two vessels will be the world’s largest
passenger cruise ships and will enter service in northwest Europe
and the Mediterranean in 2019.
In Singapore, a joint venture between Keppel Offshore & Marine
Maritime and Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd is also working
to offer LNG bunkers at the Asian hub. Shell will be the exclusive
aggregator for Singapore's first 3 million tonnes per annum (tpa) of
LNG demand and, through the joint venture, will deliver an end-to-
end bunkering solution.
In June, Shell also announced that it will work with Qatar
Petroleum to increase the availability of LNG as a marine fuel to
maritime customers across Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. 
According to official US records, Q-LNG Transport LLC was
incorporated in Florida in December 2016.
Seventy will be erected in areas that currently
have no airport facility, while the remainder
will become second airports or expansions
of existing airfields, according to local media.
Sinha says, “Airport planning in the past
was such that an airport is saturated by the
time its development work is completed.
We need to get out of that incremental
trap and think for the future and take
a long-term view. We will need to add
about 100 new airports, as aviation in
India grows.”
It is estimated that each airport would
need between 400 and 5 000 acres of land,
meaning that the infrastructure project
may mean the Indian government acquiring
land. Sinha says that land acquisition is a
state subject and, “we could try innovative
models to expedite the process. Methods
like land pooling or finding a way to make
landowners shareholders in the airport
project,” he suggests.
IATA has predicted that by 2025, India
will have moved ahead of the UK to
become the third largest market for
aviation in the world, with only China
and the USA outdoing them. It estimates
that by 2036, India will have around 478
million airline passengers every year, more
than three times its current haul of 141
million flyers. 
CEC January 2018 - 11