What's Hot Wednesday: Queensland

Queensland's residential market is booming - many business are seeing great ROI from capitalising on these projects. But like any construction trend, what's most popular is constantly evolving.  And most importantly, what are the emerging trends plant and equipment suppliers and subcontractors alike need to stay on top of? 

To find out where you should next put your efforts, we've caught up with our QLD Business Development Managers and asked what construction trends they're constantly seeing and why. 

CRANAGE IN QUEENSLAND'S CAPITAL

Cranes have returned to Brisbane's inner-city skyline. In fact, there's been a recorded a 46% increase in the total number of cranes currently in use within Brisbane, with 23 more cranes on-site in June of 2015 compared to the September 2014 crane count. 35 cranes have been removed and 58 new cranes have been erected. 

The demand for this category has been so strong that most local plant suppliers already have their self-erecting cranes and tower cranes tied up on-site, and Quote Requests been extended to inter-state suppliers to service these projects. 

RLB Crane Index Q2 2015 : Brisbane

The skyline is still dominated by cranes on residential developments, which now represent 78% of all cranes around Brisbane, with 51 new cranes being erected during the past six months. New developments commencing in the CBD, Milton, Spring Hill, Newstead, Eastend, Fortitude Valley, Indooroopilly, Woolloongabba, Kelvin Grove, Coorparoo, South Brisbane, Carindale, Eagle Farm, Highgate Hill, New Farm, Bowen Hills, St Lucia, Kangaroo Point, highlight the wave of new residential offerings that will be completed over the next eighteen months.

The remaining cranes are on education, commercial, civil and other projects.

A total of 31 cranes were removed from residential developments and one each in the commercial, education and the civil sectors. Residential developments nearing completion include those in the Valley, the CBD, Kelvin Grove, Milton, Toowong, Fortitude Valley, Bowen Hills, Newstead, Nundah, St Lucia, Marooka, South Brisbane and Wooloowin. 

TRENDS IN PLANT HIRE AND SUBCONTRACTOR REQUESTS

As the population grows, so does the demand for residential and commercial buildings.

But in the past few months, we've noticed a significant increase in requests for: 

• scaffolding packages
• concreting packages (driveways, house slabs etc)
• excavator attachments
• longreach excavators
• mini excavator combos 

PlantMiner Supplier Rosenlund Contractors' Komatsu PC450 45 Tonne Excavator with 26 Metre Verticle Reach

Niche equipment, like longreach excavators with their outreach, dig depth and large bucket volumes, are increasingly needed to complete projects across the state. Take Newstead for example, an inner-city suburb of Brisbane. 

• According to council figures the population of the Newstead-Bowen Hills area was expected to rise from 8165 as at June 30 last year to 25,107 in 2036.
• There have been 32 major development approvals in Newstead since July 2010 for buildings ranging from five to 20 storeys.
• At least 3890 units have been approved in the area, along with five commercial buildings.
• Of those, 887 units have already been constructed with another 1711 under construction.

Suppliers who have exploited a particular specialty niche have seen a great degree of success on commercial building works like those happening in Newstead. 

MAJOR PROJECTS

The Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and Gateway Upgrade North remain hot topics of conversation between contractors and suppliers alike.

With construction set to kick off in late 2015, both projects are expected to award hire contracts imminently. 

You may remember that PlantMiner suppliers assisted Lend Lease, the winning tenderer for the Gateway Upgrade North contract, by providing rates to include in their tender submission for the Gateway Upgrade North project. 

With $1.162 billion allocated by the Australian and Queensland Governments, the project sought close to 50 pieces of equipment including compactors, dozers, excavators, graders, loaders, rollers, articulated dump trucks, water carts and more. This gave some 84 PlantMiner suppliers the opportunity to quote on a three year hire contract. 

If you're currently looking for new plant, equipment and subcontractor opportunities, download our free infograph below, which looks at 4 tips to increase your chances of winning hire work.