Infraestructures.cat, the Generalitat company in charge of carrying out public works and maintaining the equipment, has announced that it will adopt a "dynamic updating" system of prices in public contracts, which will index the price of the five key materials for the sector : steel and iron and steel products, bitumen and asphalt, aluminium, copper and wood. The system, which is called a dynamic price bank, will be applied to all projects that present the model as of June and will use as a reference the prices certified at all times by the Institute of Construction Technology of Catalonia (ITeC).
Infraestructures.cat's board of directors approved the new system at its last board of directors, at the end of April. The public company, chaired by Miquel Buch since 2021, justifies it by the need to adapt prices in accordance with the general increase in the cost of raw materials around the world, already from 2021, to preserve the public interest and guarantee the execution and viability of the projects it awards, avoiding malfunctions in the execution of the contracts that could reduce their quality or even stop their provision”.
Together with this price bank system, Infraestructures.cat approved a 12.24% increase in the reference price for buildings and a 6.37% increase for civil works and hydraulic infrastructures. This increase is added to the 4.5% increase in the reference prices of the public tender for buildings, civil and hydraulic works that the Catalan Executive has applied since December. That rise affected steel, bitumen and wood and has now been extended, so that the reference prices for public works have increased by 16% in Catalonia so far this year.
Infraestructures.cat spokespersons recalled that the indexing system will work in both directions and the final price to be charged will be lower if prices fall, something predictable given the current volatility. According to the company, despite the pressure on prices, there has not been a significant increase in the volume of works that have been declared deserted.
According to sources from the Chamber of Contractistes d'Obres, in 2021, 264 works tendered by all public administrations in Catalonia, worth 59.1 million euros, were deserted. The Chamber recognizes that the majority of those that remain deserted are small works, since with the large ones the construction companies choose to take the risk of renegotiating with the administration or wait for new update formulas.
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