CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 03/2020
CD is an independent and impartial magazine and is the medium of communication between foreign representatives of international and UN-organisations based in Vienna and the Austrian political classes, business, culture and tourism. CD features up-to-date information about and for the diplomatic corps, international organisations, society, politics, business, tourism, fashion and culture. Furthermore CD introduces the new ambassadors in Austria and informs about designations, awards and top-events. Interviews with leading personalities, country reports from all over the world and the presentation of Austria as a host country complement the wide range oft he magazine.
CD is an independent and impartial magazine and is the medium of communication between foreign representatives of international and UN-organisations based in Vienna and the Austrian political classes, business, culture and tourism. CD features up-to-date information about and for the diplomatic corps, international organisations, society, politics, business, tourism, fashion and culture. Furthermore CD introduces the new ambassadors in Austria and informs about designations, awards and top-events. Interviews with leading personalities, country reports from all over the world and the presentation of Austria as a host country complement the wide range oft he magazine.
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L’AUTRICHE CONSTRUCTION & STEEL
Unger-Werk in Sharjah.
Kühne Stahlbaukonstruktionen
mit eindrucksvoller
Architektur.
Unger plant in Sharjah.
Bold steel structures with
impressive architecture.
Bee’ah Zentrale in Sharjah.
Der Entwurf für das
Unger-Projekt stammt von
Zaha Hadid Architects.
Bee’ah headquarters in
Sharjah. Zaha Hadid
Architects designed the
Unger project.
„Wir sind in der D-A-CH-Region
heute die Nummer Eins im Stahlbau.“
”Today, we are number one in steel
construction in the D-A-CH region.“
Matthias Unger
Unger Steel Group
über die Grundstückssuche und die Finanzierung
bis zur Fertigstellung“, erzählt der
Firmenchef.
Ein weiterer wichtiger Player im Bereich
Stahlbau ist Zeman & Co. Das Unternehmen
wurde in den 1960ern für den Bau
von Stahl-Hallen gegründet. Mitte der 70er
Jahre erweiterte Zeman das Portfolio kontinuierlich
und unternahm erste internationale
Schritte nach Saudi-Arabien, es folgten
weitere Großaufträge nach Jordanien
und in den Irak. 1991 wurde die erste ausländische
Niederlassung in Polen gegründet,
was gleichzeitig die Ostöffnung der
Firmengruppe markierte. In den vergangenen
Jahren konnte Zeman seinen Tätigkeitsbereich
im Projektgeschäft von England
über den Ural bis nach China
erfolgreich ausweiten. Das Unternehmen
ist im Baugeschäft, aber auch im Maschinenbau
international tätig, neben Österreich
wird in Polen und in der Türkei produziert.
Zeman & Co. ist und nach wie vor ein
Familienbetrieb und wird von Peter Zeman,
dem Sohn des Firmengründers, geführt.
„Die wichtigsten Länder auf der
Bauseite waren in den vergangenen Jahren
Österreich und Deutschland. Polen hat
sich besonders stark entwickelt, aber auch
in Ungarn, Tschechien, England und einigen
weiteren Ländern läuft es gut, die Türkei
und die angrenzenden Märkte sind natürlich
ebenfalls ein großes Thema“, erzählt
Zeman. Im arabischen Raum gibt es in den
VAE und in Kuwait ebenso immer wieder
Aktivitäten wie in afrikanischen Ländern.
Warum sind Österreichs Bauunternehmer
so erfolgreich? Dafür gibt es mehrere
Gründe. Einer davon sei die Ausbildung,
meint Unger: „Wir haben die duale und
praxisorientierte Ausbildung, um die uns
viele beneiden, hervorragende Höhere
Technische Lehranstalten und natürlich
Technische Universitäten“, erzählt er. „Diese
Bildungswege dürften auch dazu beitragen,
dass österreichische Techniker international
als Problemlöser gelten“, ergänzt
Unger. Ähnlich sieht das Zeman: „Wir arbeiten
sehr effizient und lösungsorientiert,
das hängt sicher mit unserer starken technischen
Prägung zusammen.“ 100 der insgesamt
650 Mitarbeiter sind Diplomingenieure.
Allerdings sind die global tätigen
österreichischen Bauunternehmen im Gegensatz
zu vielen ihrer Mitbewerber personalmäßig
längst international aufgestellt:
„Für uns arbeiten ausgezeichnete Mitarbeiter
vieler Nationen, die gut zusammengefunden
haben – und die Kooperation funktioniert
bestens“, so Zeman. Auch ein Plus
im internationalen Geschäft: Viele Auftraggeber
schätzen es, wenn auf einer
Großbaustelle in ihrem Land auch einheimische
Beschäftigte mit dabei sind.
What do tunnels in Canada and
India, a public-private-partnership
(PPP) fi-nanced motorway
in Colombia, roads in Africa, the dome of
the Reichstag building in Berlin, an airport
in Azerbaijan and a Formula-1 racetrack in
Abu Dhabi all have in common? The
answer: Austrian firms played a leading part
in the construction of all these structures. In
comparison its size, the Alpine na-tion plays
a disproportionally large role in the planning
and construction of civil and structural
engineering projects across the world.
One of the key international players in the
Austrian construction industry is the STRA-
BAG Group, a global business group with a
turnover of around 16 billion euro and 75,000
employees around the world. The company
traces its history back to the Carinthian construction
firm Ilbau. Hans Peter Haselsteiner,
who joined the company in 1972 as the son in
law of the then-company-director, made several
fusions and acquisitions – including the
originally German family business Strabag –
which turned the regional firm into what is
today an inter-nationally successful business
group that holds the 22nd place in Deloitte’s
ranking of the 100 biggest construction firms
in the world. With all of its international business,
Austria‘s construction industry was
even ninth in this 2018 ranking. A remarkable
achievement for a small country.
The acquisition of Ed. Züblin AG in 2005
was quite significant for Strabag’s in-ternational
business, whose subsidiary Züblin International
GmbH Chile SpA has been present
in South America for a long time and employs
7,500 people there. Among other projects,
the firm has been involved in the construction
of tunnels for copper mines for
decades: In the previous year, the Chilean Stra-bag
subsidiary was contracted to build
32.5 kilometres of tunnels worth 500 billion
euro in total at the El Teniente mine in Rancagua.
“With this contract, we are strengthening
our local brand by being involved in
three of the most im-portant construction
projects in Chile right now,” says Thomas Birtel,
Chairman of the Board of Strabag SE,
contently.
Tunnel construction, however, is also said to
be one of the strengths of Strabag’s Austrian
roots. “The ‘New Austrian Tunnelling Method’
developed here still enjoys international
recognition. Countless tunnels across
the world are being built using this method.
Today, mechanical tunnelling is the construction
method of choice for large tunnel
projects,” says Birtel. Globally, the company
PHOTOS: ANDI.BRUCKNER, BEIGESTELLT
has built and continues to build important
subsurface tubes, like the Niagara Tunnel
completed in 2013 and the 8.8-kilometrelong
Atal Tunnel in Northern India.
Despite all of this, Strabag is not just known
for its competence in tunnel construction
internationally – among other interesting
current projects are a road construction tender
in Uganda and a pumped-storage power
plant in Dubai. In Qatar, the Strabag subsidiary
Züblin is planning a sewage pumping
station. In Colombia, the group is involved
in the construction of the “Autopista al Mar
1”, the country’s first public-private-partnership
project. “Our financing expertise is certainly
playing a role in this project. Non-
European projects contribute only 10% of
our 16-billion-euro turnover; the broad majority
of our business comes from Europe,”
emphasises Birtel.
Austria’s second leading construction firm,
PORR, holds the 55th place in the global
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ranking and concentrates its effort on Europe
and seven domestic markets in particular,
which all have own branches: Austria,
Germany, Switzer-land, Poland, Czechia,
Slovakia and Romania. “We achieved
around 94% of our production output here
in 2019 while concentrating on our core
compe-tence – the construction business,”
says Karl-Heinz Strauss, General Manager
of Porr. In Germany, Porr has already established
itself as a key player in the infrastructure
and industrial construction market.
There, the company of-fers its entire range
of services. In the remaining countries, the
group is plan-ning a more selective expansion
of its activities, though the aim is to also
offer a comprehensive service range in Czechia,
reports Strauss.
Outside Europe, Qatar, the UAE and Norway
count among the so-called Porr project
markets. “Our focus here lies on the acquisition
of infrastructure con-tracts and cooperation
with local partners,” explains Strauss.
The priority is special and large projects in
the tunnel, train and civil construction segments.
Porr continues to aim at intelligent
growth, its general manager announces.
“We are focusing on markets in need of
comprehensive construction solutions. Our
goal is to be able to offer all the services that
are in demand along the value chain, both as
a general contractor and as a principal contractor.”
In addition to structural engineering, both
Strabag and Porr play in the top league in several
other areas as well. The Austrian construction
firms are also leading the way when it
comes to digital planning and building. “The
digitalisation of the construction industry is
opening up entirely new perspectives that not
only reach across the entire value chain but
beyond it, too,” postulates Porr General Manager
Strauss. The opportunities posed by
this have already become a reality and a de-
Am liebsten
schlafe ich
direkt am See.
Neusiedl am See Projektentwicklung GmbH
office@amhafen.at
Dipl.Arch ETH Martina von Tippelskirch, MSc
+43 664 458 70 15
68 Cercle Diplomatique 3/2020
www.amhafen.at