Total contract awards in the UAE fell 14.5% y-o-y to USD 88.2 bn in 2025, down from USD 103.2 bn in 2024 — yet the Emirates overtook Saudi Arabia as the GCC’s largest projects market, rising to a 41.3% share of total regional awards from 23.9% in 2024, according to Kamco Invest’s GCC Projects Market Update (pdf).

Behind the dip: Five of the eight tracked sectors saw a decline, with dips from heavily-weighted sectors like construction pulling overall results down, while weaker oil prices capped funds available for new projects.

On the upside, the clean energy sector remained a bright spot, seeing growth through new projects.

Construction remained the UAE’s largest sector at USD 44.9 bn, despite dipping 15.4% y-o-y. Power and chemicals bucked the broader trend, as power surged 97.8% y-o-y to USD 11.1 bn, while chemicals more than tripled to USD 4.4 bn. Key projects included the USD 2 bn chemical cluster at Ruwais Industrial City by T’aziz and Modon awarding a USD 272 mn contract to Trojan for the Maysan residential development.

Zooming out

Contract awards in the GCC overall fell 32% y-o-y. Across the Gulf, total project awards dropped to USD 213.4 bn, down from USD 314 bn in 2024, led by steep declines in Saudi Arabia, as project awards halved to USD 83.4 bn on the back of slumps in the chemical, power, construction, and gas sectors. Kuwait saw a 16.2% uptick, Qatar a more modest 4.0% increase, while Oman’s awards dropped 51.0% and Bahrain logged a 54.9% downturn.

Subdued oil prices averaging USD 63.1 / bbl weighed on GCC spending, despite Opec+ phasing out their production cuts. The last two years had seen record capital expenditure from GCC countries, particularly in hydrocarbon investments.

Contract awards in 4Q 2025 were at a 13-year low for quarterly results as all GCC nations saw a decline. Emirati contracts were down 44.5% y-o-y to USD 17.4 bn, and Saudi Arabia saw a 68% dip to USD 15 bn.

Looking ahead

GCC project activity is expected to rebound, supported by stabilizing oil prices, ongoing diversification drives from non-oil activity, economic expansion across the GCC, and USD 1.9 tn worth of projects in the pre-execution pipeline, according to Kamco Invest. Recovery may be moderated if crude prices remain subdued, but overall regional momentum is forecast to improve.

In our pipeline, construction is once again set to dominate, with USD 274.6 bn worth of projects in the pre-execution phase, followed by transport with USD 71.1 bn, and power with USD 30.9 mn. The UAE’s total pipeline currently stands at USD 491.2 bn.

ICYMI- According to Meed Projects data from last week, contract awards in the UAE fell 15% in 2025 to USD 87.7 bn, though Dubai’s real estate sector and hydrocarbon investment in Abu Dhabi helped avert a larger dip. Saudi Arabia’s awards plunged 50% to USD 84.5 bn amid delays in giga projects and lower spending on power and hydrocarbons, and wider GCC contracts were down by a third.

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