Companies are declaring insolvency en masse. This could be the worst year for the Polish industry since the turn of the century.

Damian Kaźmierczak cites data from Coface, a company specializing in business risk analysis, which states that from January to September of this year, over 900 companies have already declared insolvency , which is more than in the whole of 2024 and in 2022 and 2023 combined.

"The number of bankruptcies monitored by the Central Statistical Office does not differ significantly from the levels in previous years, which means that such a high number of insolvencies is due to the growing number of restructuring proceedings . This is supported by the applicable legal provisions, but – let's be honest – no one initiates restructuring if they don't have to," says Kaźmierczak, adding that the vast majority of these insolvencies concern entities from the small and medium-sized enterprise sector.

The vice president of the Polish Construction Association (PZPB) points out that while "downturns" in the Polish construction industry occur regularly, they rarely last this long, and the current downturn has been ongoing for about two years . He emphasizes that the building construction sector is faring much worse than infrastructure , although it too is struggling with a significant decline in new orders.

"Even now, when the first signs of recovery in the infrastructure segment are appearing , it will still be a long time before companies start entering construction sites and issuing the first invoices for completed work. The market will only improve when large contractors and smaller subcontractors fill their order books and stop waging a price war for new contracts," assesses Damian Kaźmierczak. In his opinion, the recovery in the infrastructure segment has been delayed, and the accumulation of EU funding expenditures will only occur at the turn of 2026 and 2027.

"When it comes to investments in the private sector, it is difficult to be optimistic and expect a sudden boom," he adds.