Personally, I can’t work out what is going on in the financial world at the moment. On one hand, the price of oil has risen quite a bit – US $68 dollars per barrel at the time of writing – and there seems to be a bit of money floating around, if the sudden influx of loan and credit card offers cluttering my inbox is anything to go by.
In addition to this, I was pleased to see that a machinery auction I went to last week was the busiest it has been in a long time, with good equipment fetching reasonably strong prices too. At the same time, there were a couple of shows in the Trade Centre here in Dubai which looked like they were well attended.
So does this mean an upturn in the market? There are two ways of looking at this. On one hand, oil price rises are good for the region, on the other, they usually mean more cost for the guy who actually buys the diesel. Also, some analysts think a sudden rise in the oil price can mean precede a dip in the general industry.
It was nice to see machinery and vehicles, and spare parts being sort after at last, though I understand much of the equipment was leaving the Middle East for Africa and other parts of Asia. But, is this because GCC contractors are downsizing, or that they are upgrading to new equipment? After all, the overall feeling at another trade show in Paris last month was that there were a substantial number of buying customers from our region.
However, buyers and developers seem to have lost the appetite for new construction projects, in the UAE at least. That said, contractor Drake and Scull are about to post 300 new jobs, including positions for various roles, such as engineers, mechanics and plant managers. Saudi Arabia is being touted by many as a growth market at the moment (including me) – but is it too much of a closed shop for outsiders to enter into?
The long and short of this is, I don’t know what is going on in the money markets right now and I suggest you take with a pinch of salt advice from anybody who says that they do.
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Who really understands the yo-yo?
Greg Whitaker can't work out what's going on in the financial world?
Personally, I can’t work out what is going on in the financial world at the moment. On one hand, the price of oil has risen quite a bit – US $68 dollars per barrel at the time of writing – and there seems to be a bit of money floating around, if the sudden influx of loan and credit card offers cluttering my inbox is anything to go by.
In addition to this, I was pleased to see that a machinery auction I went to last week was the busiest it has been in a long time, with good equipment fetching reasonably strong prices too. At the same time, there were a couple of shows in the Trade Centre here in Dubai which looked like they were well attended.
So does this mean an upturn in the market? There are two ways of looking at this. On one hand, oil price rises are good for the region, on the other, they usually mean more cost for the guy who actually buys the diesel. Also, some analysts think a sudden rise in the oil price can mean precede a dip in the general industry.
It was nice to see machinery and vehicles, and spare parts being sort after at last, though I understand much of the equipment was leaving the Middle East for Africa and other parts of Asia. But, is this because GCC contractors are downsizing, or that they are upgrading to new equipment? After all, the overall feeling at another trade show in Paris last month was that there were a substantial number of buying customers from our region.
However, buyers and developers seem to have lost the appetite for new construction projects, in the UAE at least. That said, contractor Drake and Scull are about to post 300 new jobs, including positions for various roles, such as engineers, mechanics and plant managers. Saudi Arabia is being touted by many as a growth market at the moment (including me) – but is it too much of a closed shop for outsiders to enter into?
The long and short of this is, I don’t know what is going on in the money markets right now and I suggest you take with a pinch of salt advice from anybody who says that they do.
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