THE LOCALISATION OF CONTRACTS AND INVESTMENTS

Historically seen construction is a rather local physical activity. This general fact might imply a reduced need for all the above described political worries, legal expert considerations and procurement exercises aiming at protecting domestic industrial interests and ultimately pulling the client into the supranational EEC turbulence. A survey of the Storebælt construction contracts in fact confirms that the predominant cost-efficient solution for contractors is to use local materials and local manpower, thus avoiding, for instance, transports costs. The consortia involved include companies representing seven other nations, primarily Italy, Germany and France. By country the construction contracts are distributed as shown in table 1. country percentage share of works Italy 21 Denmark 21 Germany 17 France 14 Holland 10 Great Britain 7 USA 6 Switzerland 4 Table 1 : Share of Storebælt Works by Country Despite the relative small proportion of contracts awarded to Danish companies a quite large share of the project budget has been spent on domestic resources. In the 1996 survey the localisation shown in table 2 could be stipulated. So far as materials are concerned, principal suppliers include 370,000 tonnes of cement, all supplied by Aalborg Portland A/S (DK), and 270,000 tonnes of steel, 30% of which was supplied by The Danish Steelworks A/S, the remaining volume being delivered primarily by Italian, German and British suppliers. manpower man-years percentage share total employment generated in Denmark and abroad (direct and indirect employment) 66,000   - of which domestic manpower 50,000 75 directly employed at construction sites 24,000   - of which domestic manpower 21,600 90 indirectly employed by suppliers 42,000   - of which domestic manpower 27.300 65 Table 2 The Share of Danish Employment in Total Employment on Storebælt