CONTRACTORS: A new year of contraction for the construction market is expected

The local market is currently a tired one given that, after a long period of economic decline, during which all companies strove to overcome problems encountered at all levels, the results of those efforts were not the ones expected. "The situation has an influence on the personnel working in local firms from the construction industry as well as on the companies themselves (from a financial perspective) because we have entered into an accelerated process of disinvestment. The potential, the force and the willingness to work have fallen sharply during this year, and when the emergence of new projects in the market will appear again and there will be a need to enter again into a fast work pace the necessary soaring may not be there", said Cristian Erbaşu, President of the Construction Societies Association. From the perspective of central authorities promises and opportunities, 2013 is better than the previous year, when there were no pending elections, and no investment projects were prepared. "This year seems to draw new investments, which could be launched in 2014. Currently, however, given that investment funds are low, the only projects which can be pursued are those financed with grants, contracted especially at the local government level. Thus, it seems that this year will be marked by a further decrease in the area in terms of value. The present situation could have been anticipated by the fact that almost all post-election years, with the exception of 2005 - when we were in a period of full economic rising - have been difficult. Moreover, we can add to this situation the overlapping recession and the lack of investment strategies, while the central government's efforts were directed toward elections", said Cristian Erbaşu. Although the total construction production in Europe stood at 1.172 billion EUR in 2012, indicating a decrease of 4.5% in comparison with the previous reference period, the specialized local market stalled last year, totaling 9.33 billion EUR.