Where in the world will we go next?

Richard Vann, managing director, RVA Group, discusses international opportunities in the demolition industry.

I delivered a keynote speech at the World Demolition Summit back in 2017, which majored on the importance of considering our future – as a profession and industry – beyond our own domestic markets.

Speaking in London at that time, some delegates – not all of course – were from the United Kingdom. Of these, some had already ventured into international territory, but the majority, given the conversations I had later that day, seemed to be comfortable with the idea of UK work, and UK work alone.

That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with that point of view.

For decades, UK demolition professionals have worked hard to change the face of what is possible in our country, from bulldozing buildings to meticulously dismantling high hazard, multi-hectare industrial sites, piece by piece, for maximum material recovery and in some instances plant reassembly elsewhere.

These diverse projects – as well as the evolution in our methodologies – have seen us thrive as an industry. We’ve been busy. We’ve been there when the economy needed us. We’ve changed the UK landscape by demolishing coal mining sites.

We’ve removed fleets of municipal incinerators when the European Union deemed them environmentally unacceptable. We’ve cleared coal fired power stations when the market has moved on. We’ve demolished chemical plants when technological innovation has left operations obsolete.

We’ve stepped in during emergency situations when structures have sadly been rendered unsafe.

Collectively, we’ve safely brought thousands of industrial assets to the ground to pave the way for something new. Something different. That is an incredible story to be a part of.

CONTINUING DEMAND

The story, however is not over. The demolition of sites large and small will continue, on a domestic level. Markets will advance and incumbent assets will need upgrading. The demand for ‘new’ will continue. Structures will deteriorate and plants will still become redundant.

But in the UK the biggest industrial sites – perhaps nuclear and offshore oil/gas aside – have, diminished as prospects for the demolition industry.

It is something we have long known and talked about for some time. However, during a recent trip to the Middle East, I was reminded once more of how different things are when we look beyond our own shores.

I travelled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with a colleague, to bring to a close a costings study for a power plant owned by full service integrated utility provider Marafiq. This front-end engineering exercise – which began around a year ago – saw us undertake investigative assessments surrounding the residual useful life and future options for a number of assets. The client will now use the findings we presented to make informed decisions that will underpin the next step plans for the site.

We also marked the beginning of a new project with petrochemical giant S-Chem, which has sought our help to plan and coordinate one of its decommissioning projects in Al Jubail.

It was a productive and memorable trip, including visits to multiple other facilities. But one of the things that stood out most was the scale of the sites we saw. I’d go so One of the things that stood out in the Middle East was the scale of the sites. I would go so far as to say we toured one of the biggest demolition undertakings I have ever seen far as to say we toured one of the biggest demolition undertakings, on a single site, I’ve ever seen.

This is largely because the industries we’ve already said goodbye to in the UK, for example, are at a different stage in their journey in many overseas countries.

The size of investments vary in different parts of the world too, as evidenced by the colossal nature of the site we saw in KSA.

INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS

These are the projects that so many demolition professionals globally, not just in the UK, would love to undertake. And Saudi will not be an isolated example. The underlying point to note here is that vast industrial projects do still exist, but they won’t all be on home turf.

I’m no stranger to work overseas, so I know it presents barriers and challenges. There are different laws. Different cultures. Different skill sets. Different benchmark standards. Different protocols and procedures. Different technologies.

And for UK firms working in the European Union, it has become a whole lot tougher as a result of Brexit – Ican comment from my own painful experiences. We have even set up new overseas subsidiaries to accommodate the ‘new’ requirements.

But because all these challenges can be overcome, they don’t take away from the sea of rich opportunities that also exist. Our expertise is sought, so why keep it to ourselves? Why not push beyond geographical boundaries? ■