With another year of the coronavirus pandemic nearing its end, owners have mostly moved past reactionary plans for completing stalled projects and are now actively planning new ones. Looking ahead, how will fundamental changes to market sectors lead owners to potentially reconfigure business models?

建筑行业研究所主任斯蒂芬·穆尔瓦(Stephen Mulva)解释说,在计划未来时,不确定的市场前景为许多所有者提供了“分析瘫痪”的案例。他说,报道的劳动力短缺和由COVID-19造成的供应链破坏仍然是决策过程中的最大关注点,包括实际上可用的原材料的“质量问题”。

美国建筑所有者协会(COAA)报告说,他们的一些成员正在预购材料,并将其存储在粘合的仓库中,以直接改善供应链问题。执行董事豪伊·弗格森(Howie S.“该存储的成本被认为可以抵消六到12个月内这些材料的潜在价格上涨。但是在许多情况下,优势与确保在需要时将在手头上进行的优势更多。”

But owners in some sectors are increasingly hesitant to move on current business opportunities because, while they may offer short-term returns, the prospects might be obsolete in the long term. One such example is how the upcoming energy transition will transform the oil and gas sector, says Mulva.
他说:“像Shell和Exxonmobil这样的公司看到了塑料,化学药品,不同种类的燃料的商机,但也许由于即将进行的能源过渡,也许他们不应该按下GO按钮。也许他们应该想到更多绿色:氢和碳捕获项目。”18luck官网

CII总部位于德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校,是由公共和私营部门的140多家领先所有者,工程收缩者和供应商组成的财团。该研究所是一个研发中心,以增强资本项目的业务效率和可持续性。18luck官网

Mulva sees many owners mulling larger societal issues that are causing them to rethink projects. “[Owners] are doing a lot of studies and they are not really pulling the trigger yet on the projects,” he adds.

建筑承包商通常处于停滞状态,直到所有者拥有他们需要前进的信息为止。但是,这种对话似乎并没有停滞在业主之间的施工(CIP)支出,至少还没有。


建造Spending on the Rise

Despite disruptions from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, CIP spending among ENR’s Top 425 Owners rose 7.5%, to $356.09 billion in 2020 from $331.4 billion in 2019. This marks the fifth consecutive year of CIP growth since a slight 0.8% dip between 2015 and 2016.

Overall, CIP is up 28.8% since 2016. Major tech firms, particularly Google, Amazon and Facebook, are driving a significant portion of that growth. That trio has increased their CIP spending by over $37 billion since 2016.

仅亚马逊就在2019年至2020年之间就增加了90亿美元的CIP。对于Facebook(最近更名为Meta Platforms Inc.),CIP自2016年以来增长了近500%,从2020年的18.9亿美元增加到了112.9亿美元。

自2016年以来,包括Google和Facebook在内的商业服务领域总体上升了218%。此外,该行业的其余公司之间的剩余公司在2019年至2020年之间的CIP增长了218%。。

Only Google ranked in the top 10 on the 2017 Top Capital Expenditures list. This year Amazon, Google and Facebook are ranking first, second and eighth respectively, with over $77 billion in reported capital expenditures.

The primary and fabricated metals sector has also seen a sharp rise in recent years. The sector vaulted 70.4% between 2019 and 2020. A large portion of that increase is attributable to Cleveland-Cliffs reclassification in the sector after a switch in operations from a pure mining company to an integrated mining and steel producer. But even if the Cleveland-Cliffs’ CIP was excluded from this year’s total, the sector would have risen 43% last year and over 176% since 2016.

Joe Dardis, senior structural steel specialist at the American Institute of Steel Construction expects that trend to continue. “Most steel producers are looking to invest right now as they have had record quarterly earnings in 2021,” he says, citing Nucor’s recently announced plans to build a $2.7-billion sheet mill as an example.

尽管石油和天然气提取行业比去年增长了32.3%,但在过去五年中,整个行业仍然下跌了57.1%。但是,运输部门的CIP下降最大,2019年至2020年之间有42.2%。

在ENR排名前425名所有者列表中排名的新利luck公司必须在美国的交易所上公开交易,并在美国的总部设在美国,该列表不包括有限合伙企业,公共有限公司和分类为房地产投资信托的公司(后者分别排名)。


改变所有权

股票市场达到历史高位businesses creating value and a need to expand, now is the time for owners to begin capital projects, says Mulva. But when shovels can hit the ground generally lags behind market demand. Mulva points to the global microchip shortage impacting everything from consumer electronics to car manufacturers as an example of supply lagging behind a surge in demand.

英特尔首席执行官Pat Gelsinger最近向国会恳求,通过补贴半导体行业来减少对外国芯片制造工厂的依赖,以帮助美国在美国建造芯片制造业。如果参议院和众议院都通过,《筹码法》将在这项工作中投资520亿美元,但仍未达到缩小短缺差距所需的数十亿美元。

70.4%
Percent increase of construction-in-progress in the primary/fabricated metals sector between 2019 and 2020.

像英特尔这样的芯片制造商对更多工厂的计划对短缺做出了回应。该公司最近在亚利桑那州的两家制作铸造厂打破了地面。但是,英特尔估计铸造厂要等到2024年才能完成。Mulva指出所有者需求和整体角色的转变,承包商报告看到公司脱离了传统的所有者 - 经营者模型,并分散了其资本劳动力。

他说,主人们并不像福特和宝洁这样的蓝芯片公司,而是越来越类似于投资者。“他们更像是一个拥有一些风险投资的办公大楼中的20人……他们的项目方法大不相同。”18luck官网发生这种变化的原因之一是所有者 - 操作员之间的容量总体降低。在某些情况下,CII报告了资本项目人员的重大裁员。

COAA的Ferguson说,不管所有权结构如何,关系都是成功项目的核心。18luck官网他说:“所有所有者都会做得很好,以记住人们最终是使项目成功或失败的原因,而不是工具,技术,合同和流程。”“在这种情况下,那些曾经团结起来执行项目的人必须有牢固的关系。”


技术重点

GM (ranked no. 23) has been dramatically impacted by the global microchip shortage. The company has had to sporadically suspend production at car plants due to chip shortages, leading to a decrease of supplies and record-high prices for new cars. However, the company is still pushing forward with its plans to become less of a car company and more of a tech company that happens to make cars. With a planned pivot to electric vehicles, the company recently started construction on the Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center—which will significantly expand GM’s battery technology operations and “accelerate development and commercialization of longer range, more affordable electric vehicle batteries,” according to the company.

该公司在向ENR提供的一份声明中说,倾向于成为一家汽车公司的科技公司,改变了建筑需求。新利luck该公司解释说:“许多传统流程本质上是线性的,构造数据从AE到构造函数,最后是所有者。”“随着基于云的建筑解决方案的出现,现在可以在更加凝结的时间表中自动化许多此类过程,并执行许多其他过程。”

该公司表示,它已经对其创建的数据及其要求的数据进行了高级研究,以及如何为将来的项目利用。18luck官网该公司表示,几乎所有通用汽车的设施建设项目都是设计建造或集成项目交付(IPD)。18luck官网

通用汽车说:“数据所有权和共享数据的内容既是合作伙伴之间的协调时都可以平等和意外地受益的问题。”“让多个合作伙伴利用公共平台或同意数据交换,也可以更多地利用新兴技术。”
在大流行开始之前,通用汽车已经开始从20,000多名员工过渡到“未分配的敏捷空间”,以使他们灵活专注于虚拟工作。该公司说:“这使我们有了一个开端,因为我们的转型工作场所包括各种合作和小组工作的空间 - 这可能是我们以前的空间所缺乏的。”

建筑用户执行副总裁Greg Sizemore圆桌会议说,建筑承包商只是在技术方面才刚刚开始刮擦表面以及技术解决方案如何弥补劳动力短缺并减少浪费。但是,像通用汽车这样的前瞻性所有者可以带领更多的建筑行业参与者加入。

Sizemore说:“这也是一个机会时期,我认为这已经成熟了技术的改进。”“我们如何将技术带给主管工长?我们如何使用它来评估最佳劳动力人员?沟通比以往任何时候都更强。因此,这里有机会解决这些挑战,我认为,这些挑战将推动我们为业主和建筑承包商开展业务的技术改进。