Big 5 to have record year

Dr Rashid Amhad bin Fahad, UAE Minister of Environment and Water officially opened The Big 5, Middle East Concrete and PMV Live at Dubai World Trade Centre ahead of what is shaping up to become another record-breaking year for the region's largest construction exhibition.
More than 85,000 participants are expected to take part in the 2015 event, and in a tour of some of the 3,000 companies exhibiting at the event, Fahd visited the Turkey, Greece, and Italy pavilions, and a new hall added in response to massive growth within the regional construction industry, called The Big 5 Focus.
He also witnessed some of the thousands of global, regional, and local products at the event, including UAE-based RAKTherm's anti-UV pipe fittings, which are designed to be able to withstand temperatures of between 5°C and 95°C.
Emirates Steel, the only integrated steel plant in UAE, is another local firm taking part in the event, showcasing its steel rebar, rebar in coil, wire rods, heavy sections, and sheet pipes as it returns to The Big 5 for the fifth year in a row. Elsewhere, some 75 free CPD-certified workshops and seminars worth $250,000 to the industry commenced alongside a series of live product demonstrations.Speaking on the opening day of the show, Josine Heijmans, event director for The Big 5, said: "The diversity and level of innovative on display at The Big 5 this year reflects demand within the construction industry towards sustainability. Together with expanded education and product demonstration programme and the addition of The Big 5 Focus, visitors will need a couple of days to be able to see everything the show has to offer."
In addition, global and regional industry leaders will also have the opportunity to witness some of the latest construction vehicle and concrete products at Middle East Concrete and PMV Live, two co-located shows. Among them will be MAN Truck and Bus, which is celebrating its centenary year at the event. The company showed off a 100 year-old truck to the event. The US manufacturer of construction supplies, Laticrete will introduce its Supercap pump truck technology. As a cost-effective and time-efficient method of finishing new concrete or capping existing slabs Supercap combines the latest cement-based technology with computer-controlled blending units.
Nathan Waugh, event director for Middle East Concrete and PMV Live said: "MEC and PMV once again offers visitors a truly phenomenal range of the best international and local products for the structural and machinery industries - with a range of educational content and entertaining features to keep visitors busy for the whole four days."
The second day of the four-day event begins today with The Design Summit, the only conference in the region to offer free detailed insight into the latest architectural design trends, technologies and techniques such as sustainability and cost-efficiency, while providing unparalleled on-the-ground analysis of local and regional Middle East markets.
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

An exhibitor in Tahweel Pavilion. The Big 5 this year reflects demand within the construction industry towards sustainability.