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Road works are the area where the most problems are recorded, due to the shortage of dollars for the importation of machinery and spare parts. Road works are the area where the most problems are recorded, due to the shortage of dollars for the importation of machinery and spare parts.
The companies are without machines, spare parts, tires and diesel for road tasks. They warn that some cannot participate in tenders. From the Province, they do not see serious problems.
From December 20, 2021 until this week, 311 tenders for 114 billion pesos were active or in process, including public works for the Province, Córdoba capital, some inland municipalities and Camino de las Sierras, according to data collected by the Córdoba Delegation of the Argentine Chamber of Construction (Camarco Córdoba).
The scenario for the construction companies could not be better, were it not for the fact that several of them are beginning to encounter problems in participating in the calls for bids due to the lack of supplies and materials.
“The biggest problem is now in the road works. Due to import problems, there is no renewal of machinery, there are no spare parts (filters, hoses, etc.), we cannot get tires, and to this is added the shortage of fuel. We work with diesel 2, which is most lacking, so we are forced to use diesel 3, which is more expensive”, explains its owner Luis Lumello.
This item uses equipment that is imported, mainly from the United States and China (the Asian giant has 25 million people confined to 45 cities to stop the spread of Covid), or that requires components from abroad to manufacture, a complicated activity. for lack of dollars.
Similarly, problems in the supply of materials such as iron and steel, coatings, plumbing fixtures and electrical components, the production of asphalt, paint and plastics continue from previous months, partly due to the dollar restrictions themselves and also due to the invasion of Russia to Ukraine, which together with Turkey are major global suppliers of raw materials such as oil.
Crisis in Construction in Argentina
There is a lack of supplies in construction and some materials increase more than inflation
“Given this, many companies are beginning to review whether or not they quote in a tender, because they do not know if they will be able to count on everything necessary to the play. Once the contract is signed, the terms begin to run; and if you dont comply, you have to face fines and penalties,” he adds.
Camarco Córdoba has already begun to observe that there are companies that are not participating and that some tenders remain void for this reason.
From the Province, they assure that they have 130 road works for 54,890 million pesos with no problems in sight and that if there are difficulties, they are "remediable".
“We dont see this problem in all the companies; there are construction companies that work on Saturdays, Sundays and at night to finish the works. There is no paralyzed work for these reasons. Only the bidding for a small project was abandoned last week because the companies are full of works. There may be difficulties, but they are rectifiable problems”, assures Ricardo Sosa, Minister of Public Works of the Province.
As a background to this discussion, there is the bet that construction companies are making to review the criteria for redetermining the prices of a work.
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If in one month the costs increase by more than 10 percent, the prices of the work must be updated. The problem is the deadlines. This week, the increases for March are defined; At the end of April, the company submits the order and collects the difference only in June.
The point is that inflation has been so high in March and April that it has exceeded all the cost forecasts of the companies, which are now asking to return to the previous scheme, by which prices were readjusted if the increase exceeded five percent. .
MORE DEMAND THAN SUPPLY
Another parallel problem is the lack of construction materials, a phenomenon that began at the end of 2020, when the industry began to come out of the restrictions to contain the coronavirus.
Despite the passage of time, the scarcity of materials continues due to a mixture of speculative climate, reduced investments, little supply of supplies, lack of gas and diesel, and restrictions on access to dollars for imports.
Inflation alters the payment process for public works in Córdoba: they ask for changes
“The demand exceeds the current supply of products. Many people build because they do not have access to the dollar, so they seek to save with the construction and the collection of materials. So, a large construction company that requires large volumes of supplies cannot get everything it needs, ”explains Jorge Nieto, president of the Chamber of Hardware, Sanitary, Iron and Related Products of Córdoba.
The businessman assures that hardware stores "are not price makers" and that currently the values ??of materials, on average, follow the trend of general inflation. |
