Chinese Companies Continue to Be Present in Major Croatian Infrastructure Projects

China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), a Chinese company best known in Croatia for the construction of the Pelješac Bridge, has been selected for the construction of the viaduct over the Ranžirni station on the A11 Zagreb-Sisak highway, as well as for the second part of the expansion of Sarajevo Street, an important infrastructure project for the City of Zagreb. The project is valued at €53.8 million excluding VAT, or €67.3 million including VAT. The State Commission for Control of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM) confirmed that CRBC’s bid was evaluated as the most economically advantageous.

Chinese Subsidies

Chinese investments in Europe, including Croatia, remain under scrutiny due to issues of transparency and state subsidies. There is a widespread belief that Chinese investments are cheaper due to Chinese subsidies, which puts domestic Croatian and European companies at a disadvantage. Despite this, several active projects involving Chinese companies are currently underway in Croatia.

The viaduct over the Ranžirni station in Zagreb is merely a continuation of the cooperation between Croatia and CRBC, whose most notable domestic project is, of course, the Pelješac Bridge, a project valued at around €526 million, which has been largely financed by EU funds.

CRBC is also engaged in the project of the expressway Brestovac Požeški – Godinjak interchange, which will connect Požega with the A3 Zagreb-Lipovac highway, valued at around €160 million excluding VAT. The construction of the expressway, which is 14.75 km long and will connect Požega and Godinjak in eastern Croatia, including bridges, viaducts, and other infrastructure elements, is expected to be completed by 2029.

Chinese companies are also involved in the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant (UPOV) in Rijeka at Delta. The contract was awarded to the Chinese consortium China Energy Engineering Group Jiangsu Power Design Institute, along with its subsidiary in Zagreb and Sumec Complete Equipment and Engineering Co. Ltd., which were selected as the most favorable bidders. The total value of the new complex at Delta amounts to €86.6 million or €69.3 million excluding VAT.

Korlat near Benkovac, the largest solar project in Croatia and one of the largest renewable energy projects in Croatia, is being built by the Chinese consortium Shandong Electric Power Construction III (SDEPCI) and Norinco International Cooperation. The project will produce approximately 165 million kWh of green electricity annually, meeting the needs of about 50,000 households and reducing CO2 emissions by 150,000 tons per year. The investment value is €62 million, part of which will be covered by an EBRD loan of €31.62 million, while the EIB has approved a loan of €30.38 million, and the state has provided an 80% guarantee.

Norinco is already present in Croatia, where it built the largest wind farm, Senj, with a capacity of 56 MW. This is the most significant Chinese investment in Croatia after the Pelješac Bridge. It is also the first major Chinese investment in Croatia valued at around €230 million.

Logistics in Focus

In addition to these projects, Chinese investors have taken a majority stake in the company Luka Zadar, investing in the development of port capacities and logistics zones. The project includes the modernization of the port for better goods traffic, as part of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.

There has also been interest in the Port of Rijeka, and even in the modernization of railway infrastructure, but those plans have not been realized. However, this does not mean that there is a lack of new interests; a Chinese delegation from Hebei province recently visited Vukovar, expressing interest in investing in a Logistics Hub in Vukovar.

There are plans to establish a logistics center in the Port of Vukovar, including container storage, transshipment, and integration with railway connections along the China-Europe route, and the project could involve multimodal transport (water, road, rail, air). Hebei International Land Port Group and Chinese partners, in cooperation with the Port Authority of Vukovar and Vukovar-Srijem County, have agreed that there is a common interest and that the project, if realized, would include a warehouse at Osijek Airport for the distribution of Chinese goods. All of this suggests that Chinese companies are indeed interested in projects in Croatia, although the issues of transparency and subsidies remain unanswered. Are the projects, especially those conducted through public procurement, truly the result of market competition or a combination of state guarantees and subsidies? All these investments clearly demonstrate ambitions, but also risks for the domestic economy. While the Chinese are building bridges and logistics hubs for which EU money is being cashed in, Croatia must be careful not to remain just a passive observer in its own economy.