MWCC and the Juan Miguel Villar-Mir University-Business Chair of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) present the report “clusters and excellence in the construction sector”. This is a pioneering report, up to now undeveloped and whose objective is to analyze and learn about the influence of clusters on excellence in this sector.

The report indicates that the construction market has some very particular characteristics that differentiate it from other industries, and make it conform as a very fragmented market in which local oligopolies predominate. Under these conditions, exporting construction in a sustained manner over time is an extremely complicated task.

The international construction market, however, has experienced remarkable growth in recent decades. This growth has been accompanied by a paradigm shift, in which Public Administrations have gone from using criteria related to national or geopolitical interests to the search for greater efficiency, giving way to the creation of a truly global market.

Spanish companies, along with Chinese and to a lesser extent French, occupy a very prominent position in this market.

The report explains in detail how these companies have managed to break into the international construction market and how they have managed to maintain their relevant position.

After analyzing the main quality indicators of the companies, it would seem that the construction sector of the countries with the most international sales does not stand out significantly from the construction sector of other countries. It is therefore very possible that the cause of its success is due not only to internal factors, but also to external factors derived from the interaction with other relevant players in the construction sector.

The mere existence of relevant players worldwide in a certain country would not seem like a sufficient condition to have significant exports in the construction sector.

It would also be necessary to concentrate them in a few metropolitan areas. In short, they would be clusters, in which a sufficient number and variety of relevant actors would coexist. These areas are not numerous in the world, and are characterized by significant export activity.

It has been possible to identify two important centers of concentration of actors with international relevance in the West, Madrid and Ile-de-France, and two other relevant centers in the East, Beijing and Tokyo. These locations coincide with the main export centers in the construction sector. The geographical concentration of large players in the construction sector would facilitate and encourage strategic collaboration, and would apparently be necessary to achieve a relevant international position.

Among all these clusters, I would highlight the one in the Madrid region, both for the variety and importance of the actors and for the international leadership position of the Spanish construction sector.

The leading position of the Spanish construction sector and the existence of a sector cluster around the city of Madrid is not only a relevant source of economic activity, but also a first-rate opportunity for the country. The objective must be not only to maintain this leadership position, but to consolidate and reinforce it. For this, it is essential to establish mechanisms that promote sectoral development, identifying areas for improvement, setting objectives and developing strategic planning to achieve them.