Consulting Engineering Activities in South Africa 2025

This report on consulting engineering in South Africa includes information on the size and state of the industry, including capacity utilisation, investment in construction, cashflow and profitability. There is comprehensive information on geographical shifts, government infrastructure plans and influencing factors such as the construction mafia, input costs and labour. There are profiles of 29 notable companies such as AECOM, Bigen Africa, Bosch Holdings, DRA Global, GIBB, Hatch Consulting, Knight Piesold, Dutch Royal HaskoningDHV, SRK Consulting and Worley.

Introduction

• Consulting engineering industry revenue has improved since dropping dramatically from 2017 to 2021.
• The industry includes many well-established multi-disciplinary firms active in diversified industries.
• Many are involved in the design and management of property and equipment, management of assets, tenant management, and construction contracting.
• The industry has internationalised, particularly on the continent.
• Challenges include declining investment, corruption, low economic growth, emigration and intense competition.
• There is increased competition for public mega projects from Chinese engineering and construction companies.

Trends

• A noted shift in demand to the Western Cape.
• De-escalation in competition as opportunities for work have improved since 2021.
• Fee revenues and orders for new work, particularly for larger firms, have been in recovery since 2021.
• Government has recognised the role of infrastructure spending in driving economic growth in its most recent Budget, allowing over R1tn for the next three years.
• Greater presence of branches of foreign-owned companies.
• Long term decline led to reduced capacity and retention of skills by the consulting engineering industry (and the local construction industry), constraining the local industry’s ability to take on mega projects.
• Profitability has improved since 2021, leading to stabilising or reducing fee discounting.
• Project cancellations and delays remain high, especially public sector projects.
• Revenue sources have become more internationalised with nearly a quarter of revenue coming from continental and other international sources.
• Sustained demand from the mining industry has helped to concentrate services demanded in structural and civil engineering while demand from transport clients remains the highest revenue category. Growth is expected in water infrastructure and renewable energy infrastructure.
• The private sector has, proportionally, become a more important source of revenue in the face of declining state infrastructure spending.

Opportunities

• Expansion into continental markets.
• Renewed state commitment to infrastructure spending.
• Transport, ports, mining, energy, and water infrastructure projects.

Challenges

• Criminal syndicates disrupt and delay projects.
• Retention of skills.
• Revenue decline since 2017.
• State investment in infrastructure has declined.

Outlook

• The outlook has brightened in the past few years as revenues have risen.
• Firms are established and diversified across engineering disciplines, many are internationalised, and they have a range of private and public sector work.
• The promised recovery in state infrastructure spending could be a game-changer, but government underspending remains a risk.
• Lower inflation and interest rates will encourage private sector and household construction.
• Local consulting engineering firms can take advantage of increasing opportunities for private sector participation in continental infrastructure projects.