Chinese Bid to Build Croatia's Peljesac Bridge Challenged

Austrian construction company Strabag AG filed a complaint on Monday about the bid made by the Chinese Road and Bridge Corporation to build the Peljesac Bridge in southern Croatia.

The bridge connecting the coast with the southern Peljesac peninsula is strategic for Croatia because it bypasses a short strip of the Bosnian coast that interrupts the continuity of Croatian and EU territory.

Croatia's state roads company, Croatian Roads, announced on January 12 that the Chinese company, which made the cheapest bid in the tender - 279 million euros - will construct the bridge.

Strabag, one of the biggest construction companies in Central and South-Eastern Europe with over 70,000 employees, put in in a significantly more expensive bid at 351 million euros.

However, Strabag filed a complaint within the legal 15-day period for objections, claiming that it is "highly likely" that the Chinese company used what it called "dumping prices" to win the bid, Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list reported on Tuesday

The complaint also alleged that as the company is in Chinese state ownership, it is likely that it "received state aid for entering the European Union market through this project and which is not in line with the acquis communautaire of the EU".

According to Jutarnji, Strabag named 13 items in the Chinese bid in which the company allegedly used much lower prices than is normal.

The Chinese company allegedly set the price for hydro isolation and asphalt at 428,000 euros, while Strabag set it at almost 3.1 million euros.

Strabag further pointed that the Chinese company set the costs for the disposal of the soil dug out in the construction process at 75,700 euros, while Strabag could only offer this at 1.9...