Turkish construction companies eye large projects abroad

ISTANBUL

Turkish contractors are hoping to take large shares in major projects around the world, from Ukraine to Saudi Arabia and Eastern European countries.

“Turkish companies may be awarded tens of billions of dollars’ worth of projects in the reconstruction of Ukraine,” said Erdal Eren, president of the Turkish Contractors Association (TMB).

“The size of the projects awarded to Turkish contractors in Ukraine before the war broke out with Russia amounted to $8 billion,” he noted.

“Turkish companies rebuilt the damaged bridges in Kiev while the war was ongoing,” he said, adding that Turkish contractors assumed some $1 billion worth of projects during the war.

“Currently, two Turkish companies have construction sites in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities appreciate this,” Eren said.

European companies generally avoid doing business in the conflict areas, but they directly contacted Ukrainian officials last year to explore opportunities for doing business there, according to Eren.

He noted that they organized a forum for the reconstruction of Ukraine on Jan. 31, which was attended by Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister for Restoration Oleksandr Kubrakov.

“We established the Turkish-Ukrainian Reconstruction Task Force.”

“It is estimated that some $400 billion worth of projects need to be carried out for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” Eren said. “Those projects will take some 10 years to complete.”

“Members of TMB want to take part in the infrastructure work in the reconstruction efforts. The size of those projects will be around $100 billion to $110 billion,” he said.

[HH] Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe

As diplomatic relations have improved with Saudi Arabia, Turkish contractors are hopeful that they could be rewarded at least $10 billion worth of projects there every year, according to Eren.

Local construction companies are also carrying out large projects in EU member Eastern European countries, he added.

“In 2023, we assumed infrastructure projects worth $3.6 billion in Romania. We are outbidding our European competitors there by offering good prices in tenders.”

Turkish contractors have started to do business in Slovakia as well, while Polish ministers want Turkish companies to take part in the projects in their country, Eren said. “We have signed contracts to the tune of $2.5 billion in Poland in the last three months of 2023. We are also about to ink new deals there.”

Eren is hopeful that Turkish companies may undertake $50 billion worth of contracting projects around the world each year in the next five years.

Last year, Turkish contractors undertook a total of 389 projects worth $27.4 billion abroad, up from $19.7 billion in 2022.