Record number of bankruptcies in Antwerp’s construction and transport sector: “Companies cannot pass on rising costs”
The fact that companies are having an increasingly difficult time is also reflected in the bankruptcy figures. In the construction and transport sector, the number of bankruptcies in the province of Antwerp is the highest in ten years.
Christopher Willocx
In 2022, 331 construction companies have gone bankrupt in the province of Antwerp. That is more than 48% more than in 2021, and it is also the highest number of bankruptcies in the sector in the last ten years. That is not the case for every sector. In the catering industry, for example, the number of bankruptcies has doubled in a year in the province of Antwerp, but in five of the past ten years the number of bankruptcies was in the higher sector. “That may be because the hospitality industry has overcome some barriers,” says Niko Demeester, general manager of Embuild, a sector organization of companies in the construction industry. “People could not go to a restaurant or organize large parties during the corona crisis. Today you can.”
Catching up after corona
“During the corona crisis, there was a catch-up movement in the construction industry from people who wanted to do renovations to their homes. That catching up movement is now over,” says Demeester. “In addition, the rent is at a maximum, which has reduced the number of permits for new construction projects. The boom in the construction industry is clearly behind the rug. Due to rising costs, companies are also investing less in construction projects.”
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“Another reason for the increasing number of bankruptcies is that there are many small construction companies that cannot pass on the rising costs to their customers. Profit margins are under pressure. Although I must also add an important nuance: the number of construction companies determines even more. In our sector, there are more start-ups than companies that go bankrupt or are shut down.”
Automatic wage indexation
The transport sector in the province of Antwerp also recorded the highest number of bankruptcies in ten years in 2022: 108 companies disappeared last year. “This is mainly due to the automatic wage indexation,” says Philippe Degraef, director of sector organization Febetra. “We work in an international market. Transport companies in our neighboring countries do not have automatic indexation, which means that Belgian companies cannot simply pass on the wage costs to their customers. Another explanation for the rising number of bankruptcies is that couriers are also included in the transport sector. Small courier companies sometimes go bankrupt because they are not managed so professionally.”