Published : Dec. 19, 2013 - 19:45
Samsung C&T’s subway construction project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Samsung C&T)
Samsung Construction & Trading is ranked No. 1 among Korean builders in overseas orders this year, thanks to its winning of a series of mega-scale infrastructure projects.
It is the first time that the company is to take the champion position in overseas sales, beating the country’s largest builder Hyundai Engineering & Construction.
Samsung C&T’s total overseas contract amount as of Monday this week reached 14.1 trillion won ($13.3 billion), far surpassing Hyundai E&C’s 8.5 trillion won, according to the International Contractors Association of Korea.
The amount was 254 percent up from last year’s record, though the number of contracts decreased by 6 percent.
“Samsung C&T’s performance was largely attributable to its large-sum orders such as the $5.8 billion Roy Hill project in Australia and the $2.2 billion subway deal in Saudi Arabia,” said an official of the ICAK.
Even if its Hyundai-affiliated rival won an equivalent order during the remaining period of the year, Samsung C&T has already made an unbridgeable gap and thus effectively set the seal on its lead, the official added.
Hyundai E&C exceeded $100 billion last month in accumulated overseas orders, marking an unprecedented line in Korea’s construction history, but its yearly sales fell way below that of Samsung C&T.
However, the Hyundai builder still expects to achieve its yearly overseas sales target of $10 billion, with two more potential orders that are likely to be clinched next week, according to officials.
In contrast to the unrivalled lead of Samsung C&T, runners-up are expected to run a neck-and-neck race until the very end of the year, according to the ICAK.
“GS Engineering & Construction, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, SK Engineering & Construction, as well as Hyundai Heavy Industries’ construction sector, are all running a tight match,” the official said.
GS E&C and SK E&C, which recorded a huge business deficit in the first half of the year, upped their overseas order amount by 15 percent and 75 percent respectively, compared to last year.
But Samsung Engineering, another affiliate of Samsung which is involved in plant construction, has cut down its overseas business by 51 percent, in an effort to improve profitability.
Also, POSCO E&C, the construction subsidiary of the nation’s largest steelmaker, sharply reduced its overseas order amount by 75 percent, a result of its decision earlier this year to focus more on domestic businesses, data showed.
“Despite individual fluctuations, the total amount of overseas orders for the nation’s top 10 builders was 46.3 trillion won, 18 percent up from last year,” the ICAK official said.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)