Major Korean builders' orders plunge in H1

BY Nam Kwang-sik
SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- Major South Korean builders' new orders tumbled in the
first half of the year due to a slump in the local housing market and decreased
overseas orders, industry sources said Monday.
Orders for local builders' fell over 30 percent in the first six months of this
year compared to the same period a year ago.

Top-builder Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. has won orders worth 4.49
trillion won (US$3.5 billion) so far at home and abroad, down 35 percent from
6.27 trillion secured last year.
The builder's new overseas orders have nearly halved to 880 billion won, compared
with 1.65 trillion won a year earlier, though it has received 1.8 trillion won
worth of public construction orders from the government, offsetting the fall in
overseas orders.
Daewoo Engineering will focus on receiving orders from the government in the
second half, a company official said.
The South Korean government set its overseas construction order target for this
year at $40 billion in consideration of the deepening global economic turbulence.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., the nation's third-largest builder,
received a combined 6.78 trillion won in the first half, taking top notch in new
orders among local builders.
The figure, however, was down 30 percent from new orders totaling 9.79 trillion
won a year ago.
Hyundai Engineering's domestic orders totaled 4.48 trillion won, with new
overseas orders reaching 2.3 trillion won, sharply down from 5.47 trillion a year
ago.
Other builders, including Samsung C&T Co. and GS Engineering & Construction Co.,
saw their orders fall by more than 50 percent in the January-June period, the
sources said.
Samsung C&T, the second-largest builder, won orders worth a combined 1.7 trillion
won during the same period, down over 50 percent from 3.8 trillion won the
previous year.
Samsung C&T said in April that its 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) order from the
United Arab Emirates had been scrapped.
The year's first-half orders with No. 4 builder GS Engineering plunged nearly 70
percent on-year to 2.35 trillion won.
GS Engineering's overseas orders stood at 224 billion won in the first half,
compared with 3.97 trillion won a year ago.
The company said in April that its $900 million order for a refinery project in
Russia was canceled due to internal circumstances.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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