Last Year's Overseas Construction Orders Reach $33.3 Billion: "Succeeded in Middle East and United States"

Last year, the scale of overseas construction orders reached $33.31 billion (approximately 43.7 trillion KRW), surpassing $30 billion for the fourth consecutive year. However, it fell slightly short of the target of $35 billion.

On the 8th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Overseas Construction Association announced that 321 overseas construction companies secured 606 contracts worth $33.31 billion in 95 countries last year. The order amount increased by $2.33 billion compared to 2022 ($30.98 billion).

On October 23 last year (local time), President Yoon Seok-yeol, who made a state visit to Saudi Arabia, is delivering a commemorative speech at the 50th anniversary ceremony of Korea-Saudi construction cooperation held at the NEOM Exhibition Hall in Riyadh.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Overseas construction orders decreased from $35.1 billion in 2020 to $30.6 billion in 2021 but increased for two consecutive years in 2022 and last year.

By region, the Middle East accounted for the largest share with $11.4 billion (34.4%). North America & Pacific (31.0%) and Asia (20.4%) followed.

Middle East orders were driven by the recovery of the Saudi Amiral petrochemical plant ($5.08 billion) and the Jafurah gas plant ($2.37 billion) projects, which were the focus of diplomatic efforts between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Amiral petrochemical plant is the largest project ever secured by a Korean company in Saudi Arabia.

By country, the United States accounted for $10 billion, or 30%, followed by Saudi Arabia (28.5%) and Taiwan (4.5%). This is the first time since related statistics began in 1965 that the United States has ranked first in overseas construction orders.

Construction orders increased as domestic companies established semiconductor, electric vehicle, and battery production plants locally in the U.S. in response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other factors.

Overseas construction orders in the U.S. were also secured through the PIS Fund (Plant, Infrastructure, Smart City Fund), a public-private joint fund created to respond to changes in the overseas order environment. SK Ecoplant won the construction contract worth $500 million for the Concho solar project in Texas, in which this fund invested $8 million.

The PIS Fund, valued at 1.5 trillion KRW, plans to sequentially execute investments after discovering investment projects related to Korean companies.

By type of construction last year, industrial facilities led with $15.8 billion (47.4%), followed by architecture with $12.1 billion (36.5%), and civil engineering with $1.9 billion (4.7%).

By business type, contract projects accounted for the majority with $31.8 billion (95.6%). Investment development projects slightly increased from $1.02 billion last year to $1.46 billion (4.4%).

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