Following a sustained period of growth in the construction sector output and rapid price increases, contractors worry that the end of the cycle is approaching. But that didn’t prevent three-quarters of them from telling a CEEC Research survey they expected higher output in 2020. On average, they predicted 3.6 percent growth, but this fell to just 1.3 percent growth in 2021, according to 58 percent of them. E15 quotes Tomáš Rosák, general director of Saint-Gobain for Eastern Europe, as saying “After several years of significant growth there will be a downturn, however not a crisis. We’ve already been through similar situations and so as a sector we should be prepared for slowing construction output.” In general, the leaders of Czech contractors see the sector’s future somewhat more positively than the remainder of the economy. But they warn against fighting for orders in a slowing market through dumping prices, bidding for jobs at below their actual costs.
