SpaceX Is Under Pressure Because Lamban Pays Contractors And Suppliers Bills

SpaceX, under pressure after being accused of being slow to pay bills to contractors and suppliers (photo: x @spacex)

JAKARTA - SpaceX, a space company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, is under pressure after being accused of being slow to pay bills to its contractors and suppliers. Although the company is building launch facilities and offices in Texas, a review by Reuters of property records shows that payments from SpaceX and its contractors against builder and suppliers are often delayed.

Dozens of construction companies have expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow payment from SpaceX. Some of them have even taken extreme steps by conveying liers to the SpaceX property as an attempt to force payments.

Liens is a legal right that provides security to creditors for certain properties as collateral for debt payments or obligations that have not been fulfilled by the property owner.

One example highlighted was the Hydroz Energy Services LLC, a excavation business that stated that SpaceX took up to two weeks after Hydroz filed for its lien in June to pay a bill of US$19,214 (Rp309.6 million) for work cleaning up the rainforest near the SpaceX facility in Brownsville, Texas.

While SpaceX did not provide direct comment on these allegations, Texas property records show that more than twenty companies have filed at least 72 liences since 2019 against sites developed by SpaceX and its contractors. The total payments requested in this line amounted to more than 2.5 million US dollars (Rp40.2 billion).

Although some liences have been successfully paid, many of them are still delayed. Property and construction industry experts say that despite the law in favor of these claims, collecting payments can be difficult, especially for small companies that do not have sufficient resources or legal knowledge.

Reactions from contractors and suppliers who are annoyed with SpaceX are not surprising. Some of them stated that they were reluctant to work on SpaceX-related projects again if this situation continued. It also underscores broader criticism of delayed payment policies in the construction industry.

However, the total value of the liens proposed against SpaceX, about 2.5 million US dollars, is much smaller than SpaceX's business scale. Since its founding more than two decades ago, the company has been one of the main competitors in the space industry, with contracts worth billions of dollars from US government agencies.

With the increasing pressure, it is hoped that SpaceX will soon resolve this disagreement with its contractors and suppliers to maintain the company's reputation and ensure smooth operations in the future.