The global top 200
international
construction
july-august 2014
NEWS REPORT
1
8
C
ountry
N
o.
of
N
ew
U
p
D
own
S
ame
Total
%
of Average Average
Average Average
companies
S
ales
Total
S
ales O
perating
H
eadcount S
ales/
(
U
S
$
mill.
)
(
U
S
$
mill.
)
P
rofit
M
argin
E
mployee
(
U
S
$
mill.
)
(
U
S
$
)
C
hina
11
-
7
-
4
441,717
27.2%
40156
2175
4.00%
110,553 $363,229
U
S
36
7
17
10
2
213,422
13.1%
5928
336
5.65%
16,364 $376,302
J
apan
29
-
3
26
-
200,385
12.3%
6910
265
3.90%
11,517 $637,260
F
rance
7
-
4
1
2
134,765
8.3%
19252
1660
7.66%
67,650 $284,585
S
pain
10
-
2
8
-
108,353
6.7%
10835
462
3.92%
45,227 $261,058
S
outh K
orea
10
-
5
4
1
76,093
4.7%
7609
-131
-1.63%
9,150
$831,615
U
K
16
3
11
1
1
65,193
4.0%
4075
231
5.66%
11,624 $354,213
G
ermany
6
-
2
3
1
54,971
3.4%
9162
262
2.04%
32,540 $327,259
S
weden
4
-
2
2
-
38,363
2.4%
9591
370
3.86%
23,386 $410,116
Australia
3
-
1
2
-
36,746
2.3%
12249
559
3.33%
32,679 $374,826
N
etherlands
9
-
3
5
1
34,382
2.1%
3820
153
4.02%
12,108 $315,512
I
taly
6
1
2
1
2
28,995
1.8%
4833
71
1.36%
18,352 $297,996
Braz
il
6
-
1
5
-
22,647
1.4%
3775
-
-
20,235 $199,490
Austria
3
-
3
-
-
22,087
1.4%
7362
61
0.82%
35,832 $374,826
C
anada
4
-
2
2
-
19,886
1.2%
4971
164
3.08%
14,444 $344,185
I
ndia
5
-
-
5
-
19,129
1.2%
3826
358
9.36%
17,283 $221,359
N
orway
3
-
1
2
-
12,668
0.8%
4223
185
4.39%
15,512 $272,218
Belgium
4
-
3
1
-
12,253
0.8%
3063
161
5.24%
3,935
$778,464
R
ussia
4
-
3
1
-
11,775
0.7%
2944
251
8.77%
5,705
$515,967
S
outh Africa
3
-
2
1
-
11,380
0.7%
3793
59
1.55%
14,191 $267,320
Turk
ey
3
-
2
1
-
10,495
0.6%
3498
-
-
16,778 $208,509
G
reece
2
-
-
2
-
7,225
0.4%
3613
139
8.41%
56,800
$63,600
F
inland
2
-
-
2
-
5,260
0.3%
2630
37
1.41%
3,973
$582,556
E
gypt
1
-
1
-
-
4,655
0.3%
4655
46
1.00%
75,000
$62,069
M
exico
2
-
1
1
-
4,569
0.3%
2284
269
11.77%
16,838 $135,670
O
thers
11
2
6
2
-
27,482
1.7%
2498
-
-
-
-
AL
L
20
0
1
3
8
4
8
8
1
5
1
,
6
24
,
8
9
7
1
0
0
%
8
1
24
4
0
8
4
.
6
5
%
24
,
5
8
3
Analysis b
y country
Which country’s contractors are the biggest and most profitable?
I
f the Chinese construction market is slowing down, no one
seems to have told the country’s largest construction
companies. They have surged up the rankings in
this year’s Top 200, improving their profitability
and growing by an average of some +11.5% in
revenue terms, despite reducing staff numbers
by almost 12% in the process.
As the table illustrates, the 11 Chinese
companies in the Top 200 are huge in
every sense. Average revenues are
US$ 44.2 billion, compared to US$
36.3 billion in last year’s ranking, and
they employ an average of more than
110,553 people each. These figures are
of course skewed by the top three in
the table, which together employ more
than 750,000 people and have revenues
of nearly US$ 290 billion – almost 18% of
the entire Top 200.
This explains why Chinese contractors
claimed an unprecedented 27.2% of the Top
200’s revenues last year, up from 23.7% in
2013. That 11.5% gain in revenues from 2013’s
ranking to this year is equivalent to US$ 79 billion.
G
lob
al growth
Total revenues for the Top 200 in 2013 came to US$ 1,625 billion,
a +6.2% increase, or US$ 95 billion in absolute terms. Again, this
illustrates the dominance of Chinese contractors, with their US$
79 billion gain, accounting for more than 83% of the total
increase.
The average size of a Top 200 contractor in terms
of staff last year was 24,583 employees, which
was a +2.9% increase on the figure last year.
The average operating profit margin among
the Top 200 was 4.65%, which again was
an increase on the previous 4.30%.
Some of the strongest profitability
is in emerging markets, such as India
and Mexico, along with Greece, which
is dominated by figures for the Middle
Eastern contractor CCC. Only France’s
contractors achieve operating profits in
a similar league, although the US, UK
and Belgian groups have margins
above 5%.
Productivity, which is to say revenues
per employee, is highest among Japanese
and Korean contractors, which are a big step
ahead of next-placed Sweden.
And while developing market companies may
be among the most profitable, they also tend to have
the least productive, labour-intensive businesses. On this
measure, the average Egyptian construction worker generated just
US$ 62,069 in revenues last year, compared to US$ 831,615 for the
Japanese counter-part.
>
J
apan 1
2.
3%
C
hina 27
.
2%
F
rance 8
.
3%
S
pain 6
.
7
%
U
K
4
.
0
%
G
ermany 3.
4
%
S
outh K
orea 4
.
7
%
S
weden 2.
4
%
Australia 2.
3%
O
thers 1
3.
9
%
U
S
1
3.
1
%
