Construction sector downturn means the end of the road for 10,000 companies

A report prepared by the ASM Center for Market Analysis claims that over 10,000 construction companies went bankrupt between July 2001 and June 2002. The vast majority of these were small enterprises who were unable to cope with the recession in the building sector. According to the Central Statistical Office, there were 339,300 construction companies at the end of June 2002, while a year earlier there had been almost 350,000. The largest drop was recorded in the Mazowieckie, Dolnoslaskie and Slaskie provinces, while the opposite trend was observed in the Swietokrzyskie and Lodzkie provinces. Sector representatives said that the major reasons for the wave bankruptcies a combination of increasing competition and the lack of paying customers. (Parkiet, p. 8) M.M.