Denmark Courts Portugal’s Contractors: DI and EIFO Take a Supplier Delegation to Porto to Get Into Portuguese-Led Projects in Africa and Latin America

Denmark’s main business federation is taking a group of Danish companies to Porto to win work from Portuguese contractors. The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) has opened registration for a Danish-Portuguese EPC Summit & Site-visits on 3–4 December 2026. It is organised with AICCOPN, the Porto-based association of Portuguese civil-construction and public-works companies. EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, will also take part. The aim, DI says, is to find concrete openings for Danish technologies, products and services in Portuguese-led engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects around the world.

Why Portuguese contractors

DI’s pitch to its members is unusually direct about what Portugal offers. Portuguese contractors, it writes, “have a significant international presence, particularly in Africa and Latin America”, and work on major infrastructure and construction projects in many sectors. The event page lists six areas: transport (roads, railways, airports, ports and bridges), energy, water and environmental infrastructure, hospitals and healthcare facilities, commercial, residential and public buildings, and industrial facilities. For Danish firms, DI says, the delegation gives “direct access to potential partners and customers responsible for selecting technologies, equipment and solutions for international projects”.

The summit is about Portuguese contractors as buyers. Most corridor deals run the other way, with Portuguese suppliers trying to get onto Nordic vendor lists. Here a Nordic federation is sending its members to Porto to get onto the vendor lists of Portuguese firms that are building in third markets.

The programme

Delegates arrive in Porto on 2 December for an optional informal dinner. On 3 December the summit itself runs presentations on international project pipelines, Portuguese EPC activity in Africa and Latin America, Danish infrastructure technologies and EIFO financing, followed by B2B meetings with Portuguese contractors and an evening reception. On 4 December the delegation visits selected Portuguese EPC companies to discuss their international work and upcoming projects. DI has not published the list of participating Portuguese contractors.

Participation costs DKK 8,000 per company for up to two people, plus DKK 2,000 for each additional participant, excluding VAT. The price assumes at least seven Danish companies sign up, and participants must be eligible for Trade Council of Denmark support under the EU de minimis rules for export promotion. Registration closes on 13 November.

EIFO’s role: Danish money, Danish content

EIFO’s presence is what makes the trip more than a networking event. Denmark’s export credit agency says it works with international EPCs, banks and advisers to structure complex projects, and that its role is “to ensure that Danish export content becomes part of the project” while giving the project a robust financial structure. It also says it helps match international EPCs with Danish suppliers, especially small and medium-sized firms, in healthcare, water, infrastructure and agriculture. In Porto, DI says, EIFO will present financing solutions and look at how Danish technologies can be built into international EPC projects “supported by competitive Danish-backed financing”.

For a Portuguese contractor bidding on a hospital in Africa or a water project in Latin America, that is the practical point. Specifying Danish equipment can bring an export-credit-backed financing package with it, which can make a bid more competitive. Denmark is using the same approach with other contractor nations. DI ran a Turkish EPC Summit in Copenhagen this autumn with large Turkish contractors such as Kalyon, Rönesans and Limak.

Why it matters for the corridor

For Portuguese contractors, the summit is a chance to add Danish suppliers, and possibly Danish export financing, to bids in markets where Portuguese firms are strong and Nordic firms are thin on the ground. It also follows a pattern NSHQ has tracked this autumn. Portuguese construction and engineering firms are registering in Sweden and Norway to work there directly, and Portuguese industrial suppliers such as Efacec already deliver to Danish public clients. The Porto summit adds a third route: Danish firms coming to Portugal to sell into projects run by Portuguese contractors. Portuguese contractors interested in meeting the delegation should contact AICCOPN, the Portuguese partner in the event.

Sources: Dansk Industri event page “Danish-Portuguese EPC Summit & Site-visits” (accessed 1 November 2026); EIFO, “EPC Financing Solutions”; Dansk Industri, “Turkish EPC Summit in Copenhagen”.