Chinese contractor loses $1.5B bid for Long Thanh airport terminal

CHEC-BCEG-Vietnam comprises five businesses and is led by Harbuor Engineering, one of the biggest Chinese companies that are often tasked by the government to build major infrastructure projects.

Hoa Lu comprises eight companies and is led by construction giant Coteccons.

Vietur, a Vietnamese consortium comprising 10 companies including Ricons, Newtecons, Sol E&C and Turkey’s IC Istas, have met the technical criteria for constructing the airport and will advance to the next rounds, according to the developer Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).

A representative of ACV told VnExpress that Vietur has proven that it can meet the technical requirements of the project and still needs to show that its financial plan is sound.

This means that Vietur has yet to be selected as the contractor of Long Thanh terminal, he added. The evaluation of Vietur will occur within this month.

Long Thanh terminal, set to cost VND35 trillion ($1.47 billion), is the biggest contract in Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province, set to be the biggest airport in Vietnam when completed.

The total price tag of the airport is at around VND336.63 trillion.

Its construction is divided into three phases. The first, with one runway and terminal, is expected to be completed in 2025, allowing the airport to handle 25 million passengers a year.

In the second, to be completed by 2035, another runway and terminal will be added, doubling the capacity to 50 million.

Other infrastructure will be built by 2050 in the third phase, when the capacity will again double to 100 million passengers.