Overseas Chinese contractors surf big wave of new projects

As revenues swell, many companies seek to expand foreign business to use skills in untapped markets

Chinese overseas contractors are actively seeking new customers in markets they previously had less involvement with, including Europe and Latin America, as total revenues surged by 17.6 percent in 2013 compared with a year ago, a national trade organization said on Thursday.

Chinese contractors gained more than $137 billion in revenue throughout last year, according to China International Contractors Association, the largest industry organization in the country.

Overseas boom for builders

Chinese contractors seeing big success

Although the major customers remain in Asian and African markets, demand from countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Mexico has rapidly jumped.

Chinese companies have signed $11.4 billion worth of contracts in Europe, a jump of nearly 32 percent year-on-year, according to Zhang Xiang, a spokesperson with the association.

In Latin American markets, construction deals in infrastructure, harbor and oil refinery sectors were played a leading role.

The value of new contracts signed increased by 25 percent year-on-year to more than $18 billion in that region, according to the association.

"Telecommunications projects were predominately the biggest deals from Europe in the past, but we noticed road projects in Serbia and Belarus as well as labor demands in Germany have surged dramatically," said Zhang.

More companies are eyeing mid- and high-end projects in 2013, she added, saying China's technology edge in electronic and hydropower industries gave contractors an upper hand in attracting these orders.

More than a third of the bids over the last year were targeting mid- and high-end projects, data from the association showed.

Signs of economic recovery in developed economies will give contractors more investment opportunities in 2014, it said.

Last October, Beijing Construction Engineering Group partnered with The Manchester Airports Group Plc in building an "airport city" in the northern British metropolis.

The total investment for the project was valued up to 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion).

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