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Reminders
It costs six times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an old one.

A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about their problem. Seven to ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. If you resolve a complaint on the spot, 95% will continue to do business with you.

Of those customers you lose, 68% leave because of attitude of indifference on the part of the company or a specific individual.

In summary, customer satisfaction equals success. The next time your long-time patron has a suggestion or a complaint, listen and remember.

Cement and Steel prices set for further increase

Cement and steel price increases in the UAE are expected to reach the 20% mark this month, according to some industry experts.

Cement and steel make up 30% of construction costs, which means a loss of millions of dollars for all projects. Rising costs could also force investors to look to other Middle Eastern countries for business opportunities. By the end of this month, steel prices are expected to reach US $816 (AED3000) per tonne and cement could touch $95 per m³.

Last month, ArcelorMittal, the biggest steel producer in the world, said that it would raise the price of its long steel products in the Middle East region by $30 per tonne from January 1, 2008. It said the price rise would be applied in the region around the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the Middle East and Turkey.

The company already said in November 2007 that it was raising its prices in the US, Canada, Mexico and in Europe, because of a rise in the cost of raw materials and because of unusually strong demand. Speaking to Construction Week, Ani Ray, country director, Simplex Infrastructure, said that the situation would particularly affect Dubai.

"At least in Abu Dhabi, the contracts carry a price variation clause which makes it better for the contractors, but in Dubai most of the contracts are lump sum," he said.

"We could expect to see many of the smaller companies folding up this year due to these escalating costs. Cement could go up to $95 per m³ by the end of this month while steel could touch $816. This is going to directly affect construction here. Sub-contractors and contractors are going to burn their fingers due to their contract types and so many projects will be delayed. Something needs to be done about it because as of now, it's the developers alone who will see an increase in profits.

Chris Lobel, general manager, ready mix concrete, Conmix, feels that the situation could also force investors to look at other less expensive markets like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

"If the price of cement goes up, we go up immediately as well. It's going to affect the contractors. They need to ask for an escalation clause. This is due to the high demand all over the world at the moment," he said.

"Adding an escalation clause is the best thing for all parties including the developer and I don't understand why no-one sees that. Contractors are adding huge margins into the contracts.

"Sometimes, they add a 30% escalation estimate when it is actually a 10% one. The developer can avoid this by just paying the real difference instead of agreeing to an overestimated lump sum.

Energy
Saudi looks to become solar powerhouse
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, plans to become an expert in another, cleaner field of energy by investing in solar power, the country's oil minister said in an interview released Sunday.

"For a country like Saudi Arabia... one of the most important sources of energy to look at and to develop is solar energy," Ali Al-Nuaimi told French oil newsletter Petrostrategies.

He added: "One of the research efforts that we are going to undertake is to see how we make Saudi Arabia a centre for solar energy research and hopefully over the next 30 to 50 years we will be a major megawatt exporter.

“In the same way we are an oil exporter, we can also be an exporter of power."

Saudi Arabia produces more than 10 million barrels of crude oil a day.

Al-Nuaimi said that Saudi Arabia was also set to invest in carbon capture and storage programmes to develop technology allowing carbon dioxide to be extracted from the atmosphere and stored underground.

"There are a lot of countries that are willing to cooperate with us," he said.

At a summit in Riyadh last November, Gulf OPEC members pledged $750 million to a new fund to tackle global warming through financing research for clean technologies, with the emphasis on carbon capture and storage.

Qatar eyes world's biggest solar complex

Qatar is considering building one of the world's largest solar power complexes to help meet demand, which could increase four-fold over the next 30 years, the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported.

Gulf Arab states have about 30% of the world's oil reserves and 8% of its gas, but an economic boom spurred by record crude prices is driving demand for power and water so rapidly that many are considering turning to alternative energies including nuclear.

Qatar expects to add 16,260 megawatts of power to the national grid between 2011 to 2036, almost four times current capacity of 4,200 megawatts, the magazine said, citing Salah Hamza, senior business development planner at Qatar General Electricity & Water Corp (Kahramaa).

“The solar complex would have capacity of 3,500 megawatts by 2013, Hamza said.

"You can have up to 500 MW in one place," he said. "Then you will need about seven sites because the total capacity needed at that time is 3,500 MW," he said adding that solar capacity could increase to 4,500 megawatts by 2036.

The government of Abu Dhabi is also planning to build a solar power plant as part of its $15 billion proposals to develop green energy.

Hamza said the solar complex was part of a wider plan that could include construction of a nuclear power plant.

The "GCC summit, which consists of GCC countries" has the authority to change the currency peg, Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi said yesterday in Seoul. The six-member group holds a summit on December 3-4 in Qatar and Al Suwaidi said he did not know whether currencies were on the agenda.

Al Suwaidi said yesterday that the falling dollar will trigger a review of the dirham's 30-year-old peg and his country was considering linking the dirham to a basket of currencies.

Inflation rose to a record 9.3 per cent in the UAE last year, and has hit records in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait this year.