Desperate for Workers, Europe Turns to China to Get Major Projects Built

Europe doesn't have enough hands to build what it needs, and Chinese contractors are stepping into the gap.

Holcim, the Swiss building materials giant behind some of Europe's largest cement and construction projects, has already hired a Chinese contractor to overhaul its Obourg cement plant in Belgium, converting it into one of Europe's first near-zero emissions cement facilities.

Group CEO Miljan Gutovic said the shortage is structural. The region still needs around 10 million new homes, but builders are struggling to find workers willing to take on physically demanding outdoor jobs.

Some markets, he said, may increasingly lean on labour from South-East Asia simply because local hiring has become too difficult.

That gap is opening the door wider for Chinese firms, which are winning major industrial contracts by bundling equipment supply with on-site installation in a single package, undercutting the fragmented bidding process European contractors typically rely on.

Gutovic still expects a residential construction recovery in Europe as early as the second half of this year, pointing to rising building permits in Germany. Saint-Gobain has flagged similar signs of improvement in France.

For now, though, the labour gap is reshaping who actually builds Europe's biggest projects, and it isn't always European hands doing it.