Exceeded Last Year's Overseas New Construction Order Target

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Last year, domestic construction companies recorded overseas orders worth $35.1 billion, surpassing the target of $30 billion.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Overseas Construction Association announced on the 7th that the overseas construction order amount in 2020 recorded the highest figure among the order performances of the past five years.

The overseas construction order amount had recorded over $50 billion annually until 2014 after surpassing $70 billion in 2010, but due to worsening external conditions, it dropped to around $30 billion annually from 2016.

However, in 2020, despite various difficulties such as the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and low oil prices, efforts to strengthen the entry strategies of our construction companies, such as regional diversification, preparation of measures to revitalize overseas orders, and comprehensive government support for orders, led to a 57% increase compared to 2019.

Looking at the 2020 overseas construction order performance, a total of 359 companies secured orders worth $35.1 billion (567 cases) in 98 countries.

By region, the order shares were Middle East (38%), Asia (33%), and Latin America (20%). While the Middle East region's order performance rebounded significantly (180% compared to the previous year), orders in the Latin America region also increased substantially (19.7%) to $6.9 billion, achieving diversification of order regions.

By type of construction work, plants (industrial facilities) accounted for the highest at 53.0%, followed by civil engineering (28.0%) and architecture (14.3%).

The largest new overseas construction order by amount was the Dos Bocas refinery project in Mexico, secured by Samsung Engineering, worth $3.7 billion. This is the largest project ever secured by our companies in the Latin America region. Notably, based on the successful execution of the basic design (FEED) secured in 2019, the company secured the construction phase (EPC) as well.

In the architectural field, the 'Lusail Plaza Tower' in Qatar, secured by Hyundai Construction, stands out. With a total construction cost of $1.06 billion, it involves building two 70-story towers and is expected to become a landmark near the Qatar World Cup stadium in 2022.

In the railway sector, the largest project is the 'Panama Metro Line 3 project' (worth $2.84 billion) secured by Hyundai Construction. This is the first large-scale railway project (EPC) secured by our companies in the Latin America region and is significant for laying the foundation for further entry.

In the airport sector, Samsung C&T secured the construction of the 'Dhaka International Airport Terminal 3' in Bangladesh. This is the largest project in the airport sector, amounting to $1.65 billion.

In the port sector, Daewoo Construction secured the 'Al Faw New Port' project in Iraq, worth $2.6 billion.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to continue comprehensive order support activities such as high-level order support, building the Team Korea platform, and financial and investment support to maintain the overseas construction order momentum in 2021.

Additionally, the government plans to promote various support policies to expand capabilities and entry bases for high value-added projects such as investment development projects (PPP), PM, and smart cities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.