Hyundai E&C
Continues to Win Projects

Top builder ups overseas order target to $6.5 bln and sees its total order backlog breaking $60 bln level so far

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. set a record in its overseas construction project orders, breaking $60 billion in contract orders for the first time in its 43 years of overseas work. Its first overseas project order was for the construction of a highway in Thailand in 1965, the company said recently.
Hyundai E&C clinched an order for a thermal power plant worth $2.68 billion in Las Lafan, Qatar, on April 2, bringing its backlog of overseas project orders to $60.3 billion thus far, the company said.
Hyundai's backlog of overseas project orders accounts for 23 percent of total overseas project orders won by Korean builders so far totaling $270 billion, which shows Hyundai's huge contribution to the expansion of the Korean economy, along with its outstanding and diversified expertise in overseas construction sectors.
To break down the company's orders-booked by region, the Middle East has been where most of the projects came from with $32.1 billion, followed by Asia with $21.51 billion, Africa with $5.11 billion and finally Europe, North and Central America and South America with a combined total of $1.86 billion, the company said.
By years, the company won $27.19 million worth of orders in the 1960s, $58.56 million in 135 cases in the 1970s, $14.43 billion in 204 cases in the 1980s, $20.22 billion in 194 cases in the 1990s and $19.97 billion in 132 cases so far this decade.
Hyundai E&C won overseas orders worth $3.94 billion, retaining its top position in the construction industry in the country.
Hyundai's first overseas construction project was to build a highway in Thailand in 1965. Since then, the company has won and completed 680 projects in some 50 foreign countries, mostly in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
Hyundai E&C was the pioneer that cracked open the Middle East for Korean builders by undertaking the Jubail Harbor construction project, considered the biggest building project of the 20th century, successfully boosting the reputation of Korean builders around the world and paving the way for them to benefit from the 'Special Boom'in construction in the '70s and '80s in the oil rich region.
In recent years, the company successfully completed stages IV and V of Iran's Southpar gas treatment facilities in just 35 months -- the shortest possible time for such a mammoth project.
Furthermore, the company showed the world it is equal to any of the top international builders by winning high value-added projects like the Perl GTL natural gas refining facilities in Qatar in 2006.
Hyundai plans to continue to concentrate on high value-added projects in the areas of petrochemicals, gas treatment and power plants for higher profit margins.
President Lee Jong-soo said the company will continue to operate in its traditional overseas markets such as the Middle East, but at the same time it will try to look for projects in newly emerging market countries like Kazakhstan, other countries in Central Asia, India and North America.
The company increased its overseas project order target to $6.5 billion from $4.7 billion, encouraged by its first quarter results.
President Lee said the company has global recognition of its brand, having worked in 50 countries over the past 43 years. He said the company has been undertaking high value-added projects such as plant construction, which had been dominated by builders from advanced countries.
He boasted that many project owners in such areas as plant construction now approach Hyundai to take over their projects, confident in Hyundai's expertise to undertake such projects, which sometimes need 10,000 workers or more and the timely procurement of material and equipment.
Lee said Hyundai is one of the few builders in the world that has experience in a wide-ranging field of construction from civil, harbor, medical clinics and "officetel"style apartment buildings to gas, petrochemical and oil refining plants.
He said the company expects to win additional petrochemical plant projects in the Middle East with many countries in the region earning so much oil money due to high oil prices. He warned, however, the competition is growing tougher with construction companies from India and China jumping into the overseas construction markets. nw

President Lee Jong-soo of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co.