Missing mkdir dependencies in Makefile

From a clean build tree, you can't build a subcomponent:

$ make val
Building sub-component at val
gcc -DBASE_PROTOCOL -static -DVERBOSE_LEVEL=3  -Wall -Werror -DTARGET_ -I/home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/val/include -I/home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/test_pool/base/include -I/home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/val/include -I/home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/platform//include -c val_base.c -o /home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/val_output/val_base.o
Assembler messages:
Fatal error: can't create /home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/val_output/val_base.o: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [Makefile:29: /home/ross/Mess/scmi-tests/val_output/val_base.o] Error 1

The mkdir never happened because of missing dependencies.