South Korea builders' overseas orders almost tripled in the first half of this year from a year earlier thanks to a big nuclear reactor deal with the United Arab Emirates, industry data showed Monday.
The builders won orders worth a combined US$36.4 billion from 66 countries in the January-June period, up 177.5 percent from $13.1 billion a year ago, according to the data released by the International Contractors Association of Korea (ICAK).
Early this year, a consortium led by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) announced that they had signed a $20 billion deal with Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. to build four 1,400-megawatt light water nuclear reactors by 2020 near Sila on the Persian Gulf 330 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., South Korea's largest builder, and No. 2 builder Samsung C&T Corp. won orders worth $3 billion and $2.5
billion, respectively.
Oversea orders bolstered local large builders, but small and mid-sized builders that have won no overseas orders faced a severe slump in the first
half, industry sources said.
A fall in orders from the public sector in the January-June period was the main reason for the fall in the small and mid-sized builders' orders,
they said.
According to data by the Construction Association of Korea, orders from the public sector fell 37.7 percent to 19.8 trillion won ($16.2 billion) in the first half from 31.8 trillion won a year ago.