Czech pipeline assignment for Alpine
Salzburg-based Alpine Bau GmbH (Alpine) has teamed up with a Belgium company to build a gas pipeline in the Czech Republic.The firm said today (Fri) the joint venture with Denys had a value of 76.7 million Euros. Czech state-owned gas provider Net4Gas assigned the firms to construct two pipelines of an overall length of 105.8 kilometres (km).The endeavour is part of the Gazelle gas pipeline which has a length of 142 km and will guarantee a “gapless supply for the Czech Republic” with Russian gas, according to Alpine.Gazelle is just one of several planned or currently built gas pipelines set to transfer the resource from Eurasia, Asia and Eastern Europe (EE) to Western Europe. Other high-profile projects are Nord Stream, South Stream and Nabucco.Alpine is the second-most powerful Austrian construction company behind Hans Peter Haselsteiners Strabag SE. Vienna-based Porr AG is third.Alpine carried out assignments worth 1.39 billion Euros in Austria and abroad in the first half of 2010. The company is part of Spanish building business Fomento de Construcciones Y Contratas (FCC). Alpine has around 15,100 employees of whom 8,200 work in Austria.Earlier this week, Porr boss Karl-Heinz Strauss said he was not expecting a significant growth in the domestic building sector in the coming two years. Strauss said he was certain that the industry would be affected by the postponement of various motorway construction projects. Federal motorway maintenance firm Asfinag explained some weeks ago some endeavours would be carried out later than initially planned as it tries to reduce its debt. The state-owned company also said it would pour less money into some projects in the next few years.Strauss explained a “slight increase” of Porrs turnover was possible for 2012 after this years performance that may “stagnate.” The company boss said he was happy about his firms activities in Poland. However, Strauss also described the situation in Hungary and Slovakia as “difficult.”Porr had earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) of 49.1 million Euros in 2010, down from 64 million Euros the year before. The company has 11,500 employees.