On the forum of infrastructure companies are looking for ways to solve industry problems
At the National Forum of Infrastructure Companies, the market participants discussed the most acute problems of the industry – we are primarily talking about pricing for state contracts that does not reflect the real increase in the cost of construction. Among other problems are incorrect accounting of salaries in road construction, leading to the underestimation of the estimated cost of objects, as well as the inconsistency of the real inflation indices used to calculate the price of indices and the absence of constant revision of the price of the contract.
Starting the implementation of the updated national project « Infrastructure for life » worth 10 trillion rubles. Until 2030 and a six -year road activity plan (9.2 trillion rubles), participants in the National Forum of Infrastructure Companies were looking for ways to solve the most acute industry problems. The head of the RSPP Alexander Shokhin said that 2025 for the “turning point” industry. On the one hand, it is necessary to maintain the gained rate of construction in order not to lose the accumulated potential (“it will come in handy when we get out of the emergency”). On the other hand, the infrastructure market now lives in conditions of serious uncertainty, there is no assessment of the possible influence of the consequences of trade wars on it yet.
In general, as follows from the discussion, the situation in the sector is not easy – as the first deputy head of the Ministry of Transport Valentin Ivanov noted, there are cases of bankruptcy of companies and the termination of state contracts. Industry experts see the main reason in unresolved pricing problems.
According to Mr. Ivanov, the estimated cost “stands still”, while construction costs, in particular the price of resources, salaries, interest rates, leasing payments are growing.
Among the old problems of the sector is the unresolved issue of industry salaries. Now, to calculate the estimated cost of construction, regional standards are used, which are significantly lower than real salaries in the road construction sector. As noted by the chairman of the board of directors of Avtoban, Alexei Andreev, the enterprises in such a situation “are forced to either get into profit, stopping their development (if there is a profit at all)”, or take loans or completely bankrupt. In this regard, the market participants proposed to establish the average grazing size of wages.
The market participants see the problem in the inconsistency of the indices used now in determining the estimated value of the indices (“investments in fixed assets”) the real level of inflation in the industry, and therefore proposals were expressed to introduce industry indices. It should be noted that the government has previously recognized that current indices do not reflect the structure of the cost of construction – it is planned to update them in the “road map” to improve pricing in construction (See “Kommersant” from April 18).
It was also proposed to ban the forum to customers to artificially underestimate the maximum (initial) cost of contracts due to the use of lowering coefficients (to bring it into line with allocated limits).
As explained by Alexander Shokhin, in such situations, contractors are forced to refuse to participate in the competition, since they cannot guarantee the performance of work, respectively, there is a risk of participation in the procurement of unscrupulous contractors.
Sounded proposals for the introduction of constant response mechanisms to changing prices for construction resources. Alexey Andreev proposed to renew the effect of the mechanism for revising the prices of state contracts – we recall that earlier for construction state contracts concluded before January 1, 2023, it was allowed against the background of jumps in the prices of resources to increase the construction cost of 30%. Since now the mechanism does not work, Mr. Andreev noted, « construction organizations begin to accumulate losses. » As the CEO of Mostostroy-11, National Processed, added Nikolai Russu, it must be extended to contracts operating from January 1, 2023. According to Alexander Shokhin, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of recalculating the price of the contract with the customer increase the terms of the contract – taking into account high inflation, this is now a significant problem for contractors.
The material has clarified the name of the company in connection with its reorganization.
