Malaysian Malay Contractors Association president Fadzill Hassan said this has resulted in a total of 49,606 of its members failing to renew their licences with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) since 2018, Utusan Malaysia reported.

“With projects that must be completed in the next five to six months, contractors have to bear the worst of volatile prices.

“They will end up suffering losses if they take on tenders,” he was quoted as saying by the daily.

Fadzill said unreasonable costs and unrealistic project timeframes were other contributing factors to the reluctance of contractors to take on construction tenders.

“When government tenders are available, only one or two contractors are willing to bid these days.”

He added that contractors risk bankruptcy if they were to take on projects with the continued rise in building material prices.

“For example, if a bid of RM50 million was submitted for the project but the price of building materials increases by 20%, the total cost will increase,” Fadzill said, adding that contractors were unlikely to accept projects which could see losses of several million ringgit.