Polish privatization MARMUR Sławniowice in Marble and Stone

MARMUR Sławniowice is a company specialising in the mining of dolomitic marble and the production of stone components for interior decoration, produced based on the company’s own raw materials.The company’s business activity is quarrying of ornamental and building stone, quarrying of limestone, gypsum, chalk and slate; cutting, shaping and finishing of ornamental and building stone; collection, purification and distribution of water. The company’s products are made of two types of marble – golden marble and grey-blue marble.

Marble items produced by the company are used to decorate numerous facilities home and abroad, such as the Polish Parliament building, the Office of the Council of Ministers, Rotunda building holding the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice, Copenhagen Royal Castle (Denmark), Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital-Research Institute, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, and the International Airport in Balice.

The bidders will place their bids orally. Entities interested in the purchase of the Shares may purchase the “Company Memorandum” till 18 March 2010. Auction applications should be submitted by 18 March 2010.
The auction will commence on 22 March 2010 at 12:00.

Czech Construction Growth: Probably a Healthy Recovery

On the same day when the HSCO reported a very negative view on the Hungarian construction industry, the Czech CSO also released its main economic indicators for November 2009 (doc). The Czech construction industry grew by a national +7.8% compared to the year before, meaning that it has bounced back from the bottom. The output of the industry was helped by favourable weather (which may change the number of construction days because of Central Europe's weather). The average number of employees in construction enterprises (with 50+ employees) went down by 1.1%, but their average monthly wage reached CZK 32 670, a nominal increase of 5.6% and a real growth of 5.1%. This probably means that during the recession the construction companies have laid off their least productive workers, which will boost their productivity in the recovery.

Hungarian Construction Industry: Still Going Down, Negative Outlook

According to the latest data released by HSCSO today (pdf), in November 2009, the volume of construction activity decreased by 14.5% according to both unadjusted indices and to ones adjusted for working days compared to November 2008. In the first eleven months of 2009, output decreased by 4%. According to indices adjusted for seasonality and working days the production in November was 9.6% lower than in the previous month.

The number of total orders shows a bit of confusion, as a lot of companies went into insolvency and the remaining has relatively high orders. Also, a lot of relatively large projects were completed in 2009 and smaller ones are being built. Problems of financing and the disruption in the supply chain causes delays. However, the ultimate outlook is negative: The volume of new orders in November was 21.3% lower compared with the previous year. Within this, new contracts for building construction decreased by 1.6%. New orders for civil engineering works fell by 36.3%, compared with November 2008, highlighting the disastrous effect of Hungary's spending binge during growth and crippling pro-cyclical public spending in the recession.