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S. Korean builders make global top-5 list for first time with $37 billion sales

August 28, 2015
Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate, is mired in a family feud between the corporate founder's two sons who want to take over the leadership from their 93-year-old father, Shin Kyuk-ho. The retail and food giant has been building the Lotte World Tower in the southern Seoul to realize the founder's lifelong ambition, which is set to be the country's tallest structure upon completion. (Yonhap)

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate, is mired in a family feud between the corporate founder’s two sons who want to take over the leadership from their 93-year-old father, Shin Kyuk-ho. The retail and food giant has been building the Lotte World Tower in the southern Seoul to realize the founder’s lifelong ambition, which is set to be the country’s tallest structure upon completion. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — The combined sales of South Korea’s leading builders ranked fifth in the world in 2014, making the global top-five list for the first time, market data showed Friday.

South Korea’s 12 biggest construction firms, which were among the world’s 250 largest builders, posted US$37.06 billion in total sales last year, grabbing 7.1 percent of the global market share, according to the data by the Engineering News Records (ENR) published in the United States.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which released the ENR data, said that last year’s sales numbers actually represent a drop of $5.3 billion from the previous year. But it pointed out that because foreign rivals suffered greater losses, South Korea’s ranking moved up one notch. Local builders bypassed German companies, whose sales stood at $33.84 billion for the year.

China ranked number one with a global market share of 17.2 percent with Spain, the United States and France all making the top five list as well.

The ministry said Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Samsung C&T Corporation, GS E&C, Daelim Industrial Co., SK E&C and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. were among the 12 companies tallied by the report.

“The top five ranking comes as South Korea marks its 50th year of making inroads into the foreign construction market this year,” the ministry said. “As of this year, aggregate orders won by local builders surpassed the $700-billion mark.”

With the rapidly changing paradigm in the construction sector, local builders need to seek to win more high-value projects and strengthen cooperative networks with South Korean and foreign partners to expand their market presence, it said.