Poland among top construction leaders in Europe - new report from Budimex
Poland stays at the forefront of Europe, when it comes to investing in construction. As provided in the most recent Budindex 2020/21 report, published by Budimex SA, a major Polish general contractor, in this respect we rank second and we spend more on construction projects than the EU average.
Poland spent 7.4% of GDP on construction projects in 2020. This is 1.5 p.p. more than the EU average of 5.8%. This places our country in second place - just behind Finland. The Finns spent 8% of their GDP on construction. The lowest amount was spent by Greece (1.7%) followed by Ireland (2.2%) – quoting from the report.
Building performance at the same level as Poland, as compared to its economic potential, is observed in Austria and Lithuania, with Romania having a slightly lower figure (7.3%). In the ranking of member states investing the most in construction, Poland ranked in the top two in 2021. “We are focused on major construction projects currently underway in EU countries. We show a ranking of countries which invest the biggest funds in construction in proportion to their gross domestic product." says Artur Popko, President of Budimex.
The report also presents the largest construction projects in EU member states at the stage of drafting of documentation or construction. Large infrastructure projects with a one-time value of over PLN 30 billion are numerous in EU member states. To name just a few, the largest ones: the construction of a 64-kilometer railway tunnel under the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy, worth over€8 billion, the construction of a new water highway, Seine-Scalda, on the Rhine and the Seine, worth €8 billion. Our northern neighbours, the Swedes, are building the Stockholm bypass for €2.6 billion.
The construction of a 270 km high-speed train route is also a unique infrastructure project: Turin-Lyon for €25 billion, that is over PLN 100 billion. The work is to be completed by late 2032. Most of the construction is infrastructure projects: railways, roads and hydrotechnical structures.
The implementation of large projects also involves problems - Budimex CEO points out. “Looking at what Europe is building, it is worth remembering that even such project powers as Germany encounter many difficulties in the successful completion of large projects. An example may be the construction of Brandenburg Airport near Berlin, which took over 14 years, but was successfully completed.” adds Artur Popko.
Place in the ranking-percentage share of the construction sector as against GDP in 2020.
- Finland 8.0%
- Poland 7.4%
- Austria 7.4%
- Lithuania 7.4%
- Romania 7.3%
- Latvia 7.0%
- Slovakia 6.9%
- Sweden 6.7%
- Estonia 6.4%
- Spain 6.3%
- Croatia 6.3%
- Slovenia 6.3%
- Cyprus 6.3%
- Luxembourg 6.2%
- Germany 6.1%
- Denmark 6.0%
- Czech Republic 6.0%
- Hungary 5.7%
- Belgium 5.5%
- Netherlands 5.4%
- France 5.3%
- Bulgaria 4.9%
- Portugal 4.7%
- Malta 4.5%
- Italy 4.3%
- Ireland 2.2%
- Greece 1.7%
EU average 5.86%
The public sector continues to play a material role in shaping large projects in Europe, “The high place of Poland in the Budindex 2020/21 ranking, presenting the share of the construction sector in the GDP, is for sure due to spending considerable funds on projects by public and private investors.” says Jan Styliński, President of the Association of Construction Employers, in the report.
“Poland has been developing at a satisfactory pace for over a decade, which has resulted in unabated projects of our businesses. Moreover, public investors have allocated record funds for the implementation of transport, power or community projects. As a country, after years of lagging behind, Poland had a lot of catching up to do, nevertheless, we have been able to take recourse to external sources of financing.” adds Jan Styliński.
The authors of the report point out that the coming years after the COVID-19 pandemic will be marked both in Poland and in Europe by public projects and the spending of huge resources to meet project needs.
“It may be assumed that at the end of the current decade, we will be dealing, on the one hand, with highly specialised smaller companies, in fact technology and construction companies, and on the other hand, with concentration on the part of the largest European construction companies, which will be subject to consolidation processes and, to some extent, mergers by global corporations, mainly from Asia.” predicts the President of the Association of Construction Employers.
The list of the largest construction projects in Poland includes the ongoing reconstruction of the Warsaw West (Warszawa Zachodnia) station. Its modernisation will be completed in 2023 at a cost of €0.42 billion.