U.S. Leads Bids for Kansai Contracts


By BRIAN COVERT
STAFF WRITER

OSAKA — U.S. companies head the list of 57 foreign firms applying for Kansai International Airport contracts that will be awarded after April 1, the airport company said Thursday.

Since Jan. 20, when the application period began, 25 American firms have filed for various construction, consulting and equipment contracts, said Tetsumi Miyashita, Kansai International Airport Co. senior vice president, at a news conference.

Of those 25, Miyashita said 10 are new applicants.

Both the airport company and the U.S. consul in Osaka declined to disclose the names of the firms.

Fourteen of the U.S. businesses have applied for equipment (goods and services) contracts, five have applied for consulting contracts and two for construction contracts, according to the airport company. The remaining companies applied for combinations of the three categories.

Following the United States, 18 South Korean companies have recently applied for work with the offshore airport, which will be completed in 1993.

Other foreign firms have submitted three or less applications since Jan. 20, according to the company.

Japanese firms make up an overwhelming majority of the 3,149 companies that have applied since then.

The application period for post-April contracts will be open through March 1990, according to company public relations manager Koki Nagata.

Nagata said the company does not plan to award any “major” contracts before the fiscal year ends on March 31. He said, however, that smaller contracts will be awarded to companies that have applied in the last two years until then.

Since January 1986, 7,252 Japanese and foreign companies have applied for contracts of various sizes, according to the airport company.

Forty-four U.S. firms top that list, followed by South Korea with 23 applications, United Kingdom, 14 and France, 12.