Fukushima Minpo News reported on June 27 that for the third year in a row more than 20% of construction tenders (larger than 2.5 million yen) in Fukushima are unsuccessful. A report compiled by the prefecture, states that for the first time since the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, more than 70% of these tenders were unsuccessful due to the complete absences of tenderers.  With recovery-projects at its peak, the shortage of construction workers and technicians is worsening.

The report lists that of the 2361 tenders published in 2014, 498 tenders had no bidders or received bids where above the expected price.  With some of the projects tendered 4 or 5 times, delays of more than 6 months are often seen.

Even if there are sufficient bidders, it often results in repeated tenders, as high costs for materials and labor make it difficult to meet the expected bidding prices set by the prefecture.

The prefecture had already introduced measures to improve the situation such as relaxing of regulations on Joint ventures and the number of engineers a necessary project sites for smaller projects,  but this has done little for the larger projects.  The prefecture is therefore no looking for measures to make it more attractive to tender on larger projects as well.

Source: Fukushima Minpo News (June 27, 2015) 入札不調３年連続２０％台　うち７割超は応札なし　昨年度の県発注工事