Overseas orders for industrial plants won by South Korean builders spiked more than 40 percent on-year in the first half of 2023, on brisk demand from the Middle East and Africa, data showed.

Local builders clinched $13.05 billion worth of plant orders from abroad in the January-June period, up 40.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Commerce Ministry data.

The first-half jump came as orders from Middle Eastern and African countries shot up from a year earlier.

Plant orders from the Middle East came to $7.02 billion in the six-month period, up a whopping 552.3 percent from the same period last year.

Those from Africa also skyrocketed 331.1 percent on-year to an eight-year high of $1.7 billion in the first half. (Yonhap)