When construction is called an essential industry, it really is true; no matter what else is happening around the world – global pandemics, wars, supply chain issues, rampant inflation – the demand for new construction, as well as repair work and replacing existing infrastructure, will always be there.
This essentialness is, once again, illustrated by the results of the ICON 200, which looks at sales results for construction-related contractors for 2023. The total sales of the table has hit its highest ever figure: US$2.122 trillion. This figure – while undoubtedly eyewateringly high – is only a small increase from last year’s table, when sales were US$2.028 trillion, which is perhaps a nod to the challenging conditions that have been faced. It would be charitable to describe construction conditions in China in 2023 as challenging – the country’s real estate sector had major problems and much of the large scale infrastructure projects that have been completed. Despite this, China-based contractors accounted for 44.06% of the total sales of the table, a very slight increase from last year. A large proportion of this is driven by those companies at the top of the list.
HOW THE TABLE IS COMPILED
The league table is a ranking of the world’s largest construction companies, based on their sales figures for 2023 – either full or partial financial years, depending on the individual accounting practices of the companies in question.
It is compiled from a range of sources, including audited annual accounts, companies’ own statements of revenues and reputable third parties, such as Factiva. In some cases ICON has estimated the revenue – in all of these cases this is highlighted with an asterisk.
The ranking is based on sales in US dollars – the exchange rate for all currencies used has been compiled and averaged.
While every care is taken to ensure that the information in the ICON Top 200 league table is accurate, International Construction can not be held responsible for any inaccuracies or errors. If your company should be included in the league table, or the information supplied is not correct, contact the editor at: andy.brown@khl.com
China State Construction & Engineering (CSCEC) had sales in 2023 of US$317 billion. To put that in some perspective, that is comfortably more than the sales of the firms ranked number ten to six on the list combined. The Chinese dominance of the top of the list continues, with the top five positions once again taken up by China-based contractors. Interestingly, not all of these companies saw sales increase from last year, but the ones that did see sales fall saw only marginal declines and nothing to threaten their positions.
Given the difficulties that the Chinese domestic market has faced, these results illustrate the extent to which Chinese contractors are operating overseas. For many of the biggest Chinese OEMs, export sales are at around 50% of total revenue and, helped by the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese contractors are also seeing their export revenue steadily rise.
With China beginning to see a recovery, the smart money is for another increase for the table next year
Once again, the first non-Chinese contractor on the list is Vinci, in sixth position. The France-based company increased sales and did gain on fifth placed Metallurgical Corporation of China, but not by enough to overhaul them. Fellow France-based contractor Bouygues is in seventh and then comes the first movement in the top ten, with Shanghai Construction Group rising a place to eighth, swapping places with ACS, which is now in ninth. This is an exact reversal of what happened on last year’s table. DR Horton, the US-based housebuilder, completes the top ten.
Eye on the future
The total amount of sales generated by the ICON 200 has been – generally speaking – rising steadily for a number of years. There was a larger increase in the 2021 table from 2020 but then the last few years have resumed the pattern of steady growth, with this latest table no exception.
The challenges that the sector has faced in recent years remain – a lack of workers, rising inflation, global instability, material shortages, inflation, war – although some of these issues have eased while others have gotten worse.
The fact that China has suffered such a challenging couple of years and the ICON 200 has continued to grow illustrates the strength of the global market and how international these contractors are.
In the analysis of last year’s table it was predicted that sales for the list would remain at roughly the same level, “but, such is the strength of the sector, another rise can’t be ruled out.”
That rise has indeed happened and, with China beginning to see a recovery, the smart money is for another increase for the table next year. Construction truly is an essential industry.
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