The Romanian constructions market continued to grow last year, with the first estimates pointing to an approximate value of 6 billion dollars in 2003, but the traditional market leaders – Hidroconstructia and CCCF no longer benefited from the favourable market trends. For the first time ever, Romania’s biggest constructions companies are not in sync with the market evolution, having dived as low as 20% in euros, although this segment actually grew 20% last year, according to early estimates made by the officials of the Romanian Association of Contractors (ARACO). The big international contractors, such as Bechtel (USA), Vinci (France) and Strabag (Germany) have landed most of the big road infrastructure contracts launched in the past few years and worth several hundred million dollars.
“The market is growing. Many competitors have emerged – German and Italian companies, but also Turkish, Spanish, Greek and Portuguese. CCCF saw a drop in 2003, a first time ever, with turnover worth about 100 million euros, down from more than 110 million euros in 2002. There were several factors that led to this situation – we had works frozen for about half a year, whereas competition from foreign companies became fiercer,” Nicolae Constantinescu, president of CCCF told Ziarul Financiar.
Early calculations point to a 17% drop in euro in the constructions company’s turnover, from 3,800bn ROL (121 million euros) to 100 million euros.
A similar decline is also forecast by Hidroconstructia, which expects turnover to have dived 18.5% in euros, from 135 million euros in 2002 to some 110 million euros last year. The company was hit by last year’s prolonged winter, which was why it was only able to start works in April.
Both companies eye the big projects on the market, which favour the international constructors with significant expertise, able to attract financing for the contracts. In terms of strategy, CCCF is already part of consortia and joint-stock companies, having won two 80m-euro contracts together with Astaldi (Italy) and Max Bogl (Germany) at the end of last year. The three companies will complete two segments of the Bucharest-Cernavoda highway.
On the other hand, Hidroconstructia, a company with an impressive portfolio, would like to team up with the foreign companies, to work on the highway projects.
“We are now facing increased competition from the foreign companies on the international market. Some of them even entered the market with no competition at all, having been directly entrusted with a contract, such as it happened with the American company Bechtel,” Liviu Daschievici, general manager of ARACO told Ziarul Financiar.
All the foreign constructions companies operating on the Romanian market are seeing growth in Romania, such as Astaldi (Italy), Vinci (France) and Diekat (Greece).
Italian group Astaldi, one of Europe’s largest constructors, at the end of last year estimated 55 million-euro turnover on the Romanian market for 2003, up 37% from 2002. For 2004, the company forecasts 70 million euros in turnover. Diekat Romania expected more spectacular growth, from 15.8m euros in 2002 to 27.3 million euros in 2003.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro