Elevator-maker Kone sees growth in Gulf’s skyscraper craze

• High demand despite war impact
• Kone’s Gulf portfolio is $500m
• Burj Azizi has 59 lifts

The Gulf’s obsession for high-rise buildings shows no sign of abating despite the regional conflict, and demand for elevators remains strong, according to a senior executive at Finnish manufacturer Kone.

Dubai alone accounts for six of the world’s 25 tallest towers under construction, according to the Council on Vertical Urbanism, (renamed from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 2025). The UAE and Saudi Arabia together account for almost a third, behind China at 60 percent.

“Despite everything, there is a lot of investment in there,” Kone’s executive vice president Tomio Pihkala told AGBI. “There has been a high-rise boom for many years now and this shows no signs of stopping.”

The UAE has been a “strong growth market” for Kone, which has its regional headquarters in Dubai and oversees the Middle East and Africa from the emirate. The region accounts for about 15 percent of Kone’s business, Pihkala said.

Kone has operated in the UAE since 1975, with branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Its regional portfolio is approaching $500 million, Pihkala said.

Kone’s latest results showed “significant growth” of more than 10 percent in new-building orders in its Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region in the second quarter.

At its latest project, Burj Azizi, on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, Kone is supplying a MiniSpace elevator that will travel more than 630 metres, making it one of the world’s longest single elevator journeys.

The project includes 59 elevators, with speeds of up to 10 metres per second, and 15 escalators.

“There’s some uncertainty due to the external environment, but demand has been very robust,” Pihkala said.

The comments echo those of Amna Mahmoud Fikri, the UAE ambassador to Finland, who told AGBI that Finnish businesses have confidence in the Emirates despite the conflict.

“I think there is still a confidence in our ecosystem in the UAE,” she said, adding that Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia was “one of the very first companies” to offer its support and services at the start of the conflict.

Fikri said growth opportunities remained in digitalisation, advanced technologies, artificial intelligence, sustainability, space and satellite infrastructure and data centres.

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The UAE has been Finland’s largest trading partner in the Gulf region for five consecutive years. Non-oil bilateral trade stands at about $580 million, Fikri said.

About 1,700 Finns live in the UAE, according to government figures, while about 70 Finnish companies operate in the country. UAE investment in Finland has been more limited. The UAE foreign ministry says about six Emirati companies have a presence there.

Abu Dhabi’s Masdar invested €120 million ($135 million) in Finnish wind-turbine maker WinWinD in 2008, but the company filed for bankruptcy five years later after accumulating more than €300 million in debt. In 2025 Edgnex, the data centre subsidiary of Dubai’s Damac Group, acquired Finland-based data centre company Hyperco for an undisclosed sum.

On October 1 Dubai flag carrier Emirates launched a daily service between Dubai and Helsinki, strengthening direct links between the UAE and Finland.