While in 2018 the average number of contenders in a single procurement was 2.11, in 2022 this number increased to 4.07, as reported by Latvian State Roads LLC (LVC).
Competition is also up for bridge construction procurement projects: from 1.77 contenders in 2018 to 2.78 in 2022. Latvia’s bridge construction market is small. There are fewer bridge construction companies than there are road construction companies. Additionally, it is not uncommon for foreign companies to participate in road and bridge construction procurement projects, explains LVC.
With increased competition there is a drop in prices, LVC notes.
Thanks to timely procurement projects and competition, it was possible to save up to EUR 11 million in various procurement projects in the two first months of last year. This is why it was possible to perform reviews of prices for existing contracts, as well as sign contracts with higher costs after the 24th of February.
The situation is the opposite for construction design procurement projects,
where the number of contenders has gone down in the last three years. This can be explained with the fact that there are very few specialised road construction design companies. On top of that, their capacity is limited. The number of orders in the road construction design projects has been considerably higher in the last three years largely thanks to RailBaltic activity. In 2019 there were 4.43 contenders in various LVC road design projects. Last year there were 3.04 contenders.
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