Papua New Guinea’s construction sector is on the move thanks to major new public investment in infrastructure, according to George Constantinou, head of Monier Limited and Hebou Construction at the Constantinou Group of Companies.

The CEO of Monier, PNG’s single largest producer, supplier and distributor of construction material and building products, is optimistic about the construction sector in the country.

In a recent Business Advantage PNG online briefing, Constantinou, who is also the Managing Director of Hebou Constructions, spoke about the likely impact of the Marape government’s signature infrastructure plan, the K20 billion Connect PNG program, and also PNG Ports’ planned facilities upgrade.

‘In the construction sector, I see exponential growth,’ he says. ‘Infrastructure spending has been quite healthy.’ He believes both rollouts will be ‘very important for the next 20 years’ and have a ‘long-lasting legacy.’

He says the Constantinou Group is ‘hoping to be actively participating’ in these projects.

‘It’ll be an interesting space, with funding from a number of infrastructure projects partners like the Asian Development Bank, JICA and the Australian and Chinese governments, and, of course, the support of the PNG Government.’

Hebou Constructions is currently involved in the K56 million reconstruction work for the Motukea International Terminal outside Port Moresby and the much-anticipated redevelopment of Lae’s Nadzab Airport.

Expansion

In addition to its existing focus on road construction, airports and ports, Constantinou says Hebou Constructions is getting in to a ‘mining head space’ and seeing how to assist PNG’s existing and planned mining projects.\

The company is readying to see ‘how we can help to deliver roads or anything they [mining companies] may need. We want to see what else is out there because we know there is a lot of activity in all the mining areas,’ he says.

‘The Simberi mine, Porgera, Total [Papua LNG], Wafi: they are not ‘right now [projects]’, but they are not far off. They are medium- and long-term and that is a good space for everyone in the construction industry.’

Constantinou sees the ability to work in remote locations as an advantage.

‘Monier now has a full-service mobile testing laboratory. That means we can move around PNG to deliver high-quality products,’ he says.

Amalgamation

Last year, Monier amalgamated with the group’s water product division, Poly Allied Products, to create Monier Water Solutions (MWS).

MWS offers a range of quality HDPE pipe technologies and plastic water tanks and septic tanks.

‘Monier has a pretty strong branding and recognition in PNG. We wanted to associate our water brand division with Monier.

‘[The amalgamation] also increased standards, processes … and makes a point on quality.’