World’s largest contractors generate $500B in revenue last year

By Mert Davut

The world’s largest contracting firms reached a revenue of $499.7 billion in 2023, an eight-year high, according to the Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine’s Top 250 International Contractors list, compiled by Anadolu.

The revenue of the companies listed increased 16.6% year-on-year, despite inflation, supply chain issues, climate change, and regional conflicts, the list showed.

In 2015, the 250 contractors’ revenues amounted to $501.1 billion, though this figure fell to $468.1 billion in the following year, only to recover in 2017 once again, reaching $482.4 billion.

In 2018, the revenue of contractors in the ENR’s list made up $487.3 billion, and $473.1 billion in 2019.

During the pandemic, the revenues of contracting firms fell approximately $75 billion, totaling $420.4 billion in 2020 and $397.9 billion in 2021.

The global contracting sector’s revenues only grew in the years after the pandemic, from $428.5 billion in 2022 to last year’s $499.7 billion.

- European contractors see highest int’l revenues

The list showed that the international revenue accumulated by European contractors amounted to $130.8 billion in 2023, followed by Asian contractors with $89.6 billion, and US contractors with $71.5 billion.

In the Middle East, contractors’ international revenues reached $64.3 billion in 2023, up 28.8% year-on-year, the highest increase among other regions, while African contractors generated $52.4 billion in international revenues in the same period.

The list revealed that the international revenue of Latin American contractors last year reached $34.7 billion, followed by their Australian counterparts with $30.7 billion, Canadian contractors with $24 billion, and Caribbean ones with $1.7 billion in the same period.

Meanwhile, of all types of contracting, transportation, such as airport, bridge, railway, and tunnel contracting, generated $154.6 billion, while construction of commercial buildings, hotels, hospitals, apartments, and other general construction accounted for $97 billion in revenue last year.

Oil sector constructions, such as refineries, plants, and pipelines earned $81.1 billion in revenue, while energy contractors, companies that build thermal and hydroelectric power plants, among other things, generated $52 billion in revenue.

Contractors building factories for automotive, textile, and other sectors saw $32.7 billion in revenue in the same period.

- Some 60% of Turkish firms in ENR’s Top 250 contractors list work globally

Some 43 among the 250 firms listed were Turkish contractors, whose total revenue reached $30.8 billion last year, $18.5 billion of which was generated from international business, making up 60% of the total revenue, the list showed.

The Turkish contractors on the list will be awarded an overseas service award during a ceremony on Wednesday, with the attention of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Trade Minister Omer Bolat.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim