Construction company faces low 2012 earnings
11 September 2012Central and eastern Europe’s largest construction company has announced its figures for the first half of this year, which were considerably in the minus. Strabag SE has also recently disclosed a downward revision of its outlook for the full-year 2012, citing delays of public authorities in central and eastern Europe in dealing with claims, the cautious valuation of some construction projects and the ruinous price war in the raw materials business as reasons.
The group's output volume in the first half of 2012 fell slightly by 2 per cent to EUR 6,036.18M (USD 7,727.2M). The largest reduction was registered in Poland due to the end of the construction boom in that country. The company added that for some time a clear trend has been developing toward a reduction of the output volume in the transportation infrastructures segment with simultaneous growth in the other segments. Order backlog, for example, was two per cent higher, with large-scale orders in Italy and Germany.
"If we want to manage the future, we will have to create the best possible conditions for doing so," said Hans Peter Haselsteiner, CEO of Strabag. "Things will certainly become more difficult than we have been accustomed to. The challenge will be to position the group in such a way that we have the decisive competitive advantage, that we belong to the ones who prosper this is what I see as my task."
