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Salini Impregilo is on the shortlist for Australia’s US$1.8 billion Sydney Gateway project to improve connections around Sydney Airport and Port Botany.
The placing comes as Salini and other Italian construction companies are seeking to set up Progetto Italia. The national Italian strategy will seek to improve the sector’s global performance and rescue ailing Italian companies from possible bankruptcy.
Salini, if chosen by Australia’s Transport for New South Wales state government, would be part of a wider project to provide missing links in the Sydney’s motorway network and return local streets to the community by enabling around 80,000 vehicles a day - including 10,000 heavy vehicles - to travel on new roads. The project will include a new flyover to the domestic terminals at Sydney Airport.
Transport for New South Wales is improving infrastructure in a state whose population is expected to grow from eight million to 12 million by 2056.
Australia in general, noted Salini, is among the world’s biggest investors in infrastructure an increasingly important market for the group. However, to capture more of the Australian market, Salini other Italian construction firms – where too many, large and small, are facing financial difficulty – should cooperate under the proposed Progetto Italia, said the company.
Italy’s construction sector is worth €160 billion or 8% of the country’s GDP. It employs 1.4 million people and has a growth rate that could reach 3% by 2021, according to estimates by Cresme, a research outfit that specialises in the sector.
Despite this positive trend, many companies are in crisis. Five of the 10 biggest builders have begun proceedings to restructure their debt: Astaldi, Società Italiana Condotte d’Acqua, C.M.C., Grandi Lavori Fincosit and Trevi. This means that 30% of the sector’s revenues are frozen and around 30,000 people risk losing their jobs. It is a risk that comes after 500,000 jobs have already been lost in recent years, according to the website of the proposal.
For years, Italy has had blocked construction sites because of a wide range of issues, from financial difficulties and a lack of public funds to bureaucracy. The value of these blocked construction sites is equal to €36.4 billion, but it reaches €86 billion when considering the local economies around them, according to Associazione Nazionale Costruttori Edili (ANCE), the national builders’ union.
Progetto Italia aims, with the help of financial institutions, bring together these companies, some more healthier than others. The group that would be formed by this operation would be able to safeguard work for some 70,000 people, generate revenues of €14 billion and have an order book worth €61 billion. |
