On the local market, Strabag is building Deva-Orastie and Orastie-Sibiu highways and the tallest office building in Bucharest.
“We expanded our activity on transport infrastructure. This led to a rise in the volume of works,” Paula Rys, in charge of communication at Strabag, told Ziarul Financiar.
The Austrian company’s portfolio of contracts in Romania amounted to EUR492 million in the first half, down by around 12% against the first half of last year, according to data in Strabag’s first-half report.
Revenues from transport infrastructure projects amounted to EUR63.7 million in the first half, up 80% against the similar period of 2011.
The civil engineering division of Strabag recorded a turnover of EUR67 million, three times higher than in the first half of 2011. The growth can also be explained through the fact that the Austrian company is now preparing to finalize one of its largest projects, Bucharest’s Sky Tower building, which will be the capital city’s tallest building and Romania’s too, at 137 m high and with 36 floors. The developer of the building is Raiffeisen Evolution, which will also build a shopping center next to Sky Tower, Promenada Mall.
The market is very volatile
Despite obtaining a good result in the first half of this year, the Austrian company remains pessimistic about the evolution of the construction sector in the second part of 2012.
“The market is very volatile and there is huge pressure on the price. We expect market conditions to remain difficult in the second half of 2012,” Paula Rys also said.
The company last year won the construction of an around 24-km section of Orastie-Sibiu highway, for which it will get EUR166 million (VAT included). Strabag also won contracts to rehabilitate national roads 14 Sighisoara-Sibiu and 15A Reghin-Bistrita worth a total of EUR106 million.
Strabag is now awaiting the results of 5 auctions to build over 100 km of highway worth around EUR1 billion. The Austrian group is present in Romania in the construction sector through several companies, among which Strabag SRL, Strabag AG, Drumco Timisoara and ARL Cluj.
Strabag last year had cumulated turnover of around EUR206 million, up by over 20% against the previous year and in the first part of this year the construction group expected this year’s revenues in Romania to be similar to 2011 results because the group did not see a rebound of the local construction market.
After cumulated declines of around 40% in 2009 and 2010, the construction market slowed down its decline last year. The construction sector amounted to around EUR9.3 billion in 2011, down from EUR9.7 billion the year before and from EUR15.3 billion in 2008, according to estimates made by the Romanian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (ARACO).
(English version by Daniela Stoican)