Building work is
driving contractors order books according to new construction market research
by Glenigan.
Kier won more work
overall than any other contractor last year and this came as the group’s order
book for building work leapt by 36%.
As a result, Kier
replaces Sir Robert McAlpine as the top building contractor in 2018 on the
value of contracts won according to Glenigan’s construction industry analysis.
Sir Robert
McAlpine’s building order book shrank 49% last year but half of the top 10 won
more building work in 2018 than in 2017.
Wates’ work on the
Northern Estate renovation project at the House of Commons in London helped
grow building orders by 51% in 2018 and pushed the group into second spot.
New entrants into
the rankings of the industry’s top 10 building contractors include ISG, which
rose from twelfth in 2017 to eighth place last year as building work increased
by 11%.
Lendlease’s success
in securing the main £350 million Commonwealth Games project in Birmingham
lifted building orders by 14% last year, when the Australian-owned company was
ranked seventh.
Winvic breaks into
the top 10 as the group’s dominance of the industrial, warehouse and logistics
sector, particularly in the East Midlands, sent building orders up 10%.
Overall building
orders at the top 100 contractors sagged by 16% last year to £31.6 billion
compared to £37.7 billion in 2017.
Building work
provided 85% of the contracts by value at order books amongst the top 100
contractors in 2018. This is up from 79% in 2017 as civil engineering orders
subsided at an even faster rate.
Tarmac was the most
successful roads contractor in 2018 was partly due to a £1 billion contract for
Highways England to carry out the strategic road network resurfacing programme.
Balfour Beatty had
been top in 2017 after bagging major projects including work on the Hinckley
power station project. The group’s civil order construction book shrank by more
than 70% last year, when Balfour finished fourth.
Carillion had been
among the top 10 civil contractors in 2017, but has vanished, while Skanska
also drops out.
New entrants in the
top 10 include Murphy, which last year won a slew of major civils schemes
including a £60 million anaerobic digestion plant in Huddersfield and a £57
million sewage & sludge treatment plant in Hull. With Murphy also bagging
major civils deals for the Ministry of Defence and National Grid, the group was
ranked seventh in 2018.
Overall civil
engineering work at the top 100 contractors shrank to £5.7 billion from just
over £10 billion in 2017.
Of the top 100
contractors, 57 companies had won contracts for some form of civil engineering
work last year, which was exactly the same number as in 2017.
However, civil
engineering orders only outstripped building work by value at five contractors
in the entire top 100: Tarmac, Costain, Murphy, VolkerWessels and Hochtief.
