The equipment rental market has become increasingly competitive, with more foreign entrants to the market and local companies with excess capacity, says Graeme Clack, chief executive of Byrne Equipment Rental LLC.
Byrne is one of two rental companies that have announced plans for a new offices in the last month, and is building a new $4m, 37,254m2 complex at Dubai Industrial City.
The other, Speedy International, announced a 30,000m² complex in ESNAAD Offshore supply base at Mussafah, preceding a further announcement that it had secured a five year, $50 million rental deal with ESNAAD.
Clack says that the market is also more competitive since clients have become more demanding, with the onus on rental companies to meet their customers’ requirements.
While particularly in the UAE there is dormant capacity on machines, rental companies still have an important role to play, especially where companies can’t obtain bank financing to buy new equipment, or when lending rates are too high says Clack.
“Byrne offers companies such as these the opportunity to continue to trade, take on projects and deliver solutions of their own.
“In the practical sense our clients get an instant response, [and] equipment is available immediately for delivery to site, we therefore help them cover emergency scenarios or peaks in their demand in a timely and cost effective manner.”
As a consequence of the drop off in activity in the construction sector, many companies began to target the oil and gas sector, described by Clack as a ‘hot spot’.
UAE-based Al Faris Equipment Rentals, whose cranes are a familiar site on construction sites and jobs across the UAE, is a good example.
While work in the construction industry made up the majority of the work prior to the bust in ’09, work in the Oil & Gas sector now makes up more than 50% of the company’s business, said operations manager Charles Govias.
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