Kvaerner tops table for the fifth time

Construction orders held up well in November, just topping the previous month at around £1.6 billion. Encouragingly, the total value of orders is around £450 million up on November 1997, with much higher figures this year for private commercial and industrial orders and infrastructure. Only other public non-housing projects are down, though this may be due to the switch to PFI for many projects which used to be directly funded by Government - these are now often classified as private commercial schemes.

That sector has certainly reasserted its dominance, with a rise of £230 million in private commercial orders after a fine showing by the infrastructure sector in October.

Public housing remained almost static, while other public non-housing work dropped off quite sharply by £80 million. Infrastructure orders remained strong even without the distorting factor of a few huge contracts on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to boost it this month.

Private industrial orders showed a welcome rise, but it has to be noted that over half of this total derived from one large contract won by this month's winner, Kvaerner.

success

Kvaerner has continued its run of success, topping the CJ50 for the second month running and for the fifth time this year. Last month's success was due to rail and water infrastructure but the major boost for November came from a rather more unexpected quarter, the North Sea.

Kvaerner Oil and Gas has scooped a £100 million contract to engineer, construct, install and commission a new process and utilities platform for Texaco. The firm also managed a good average elsewhere by picking up over £10 million in every other sector except housing.

Taylor Woodrow was bolstered by the signing of a major PFI healthcare project, the £150 million Bromley Hospital development in Kent. The private finance nature of the deal means it has provided a significant boost to the private commercial sector, rather than other public non-housing, where hospital schemes would normally have been classified in the past.

Tarmac remains comfortably in the top 10 thanks to a £50 million corporate track alliance contract with London Underground, an £18 million development of flats for Regalian in London and a £10.9 million leisure development for Richardson Developments in Birmingham.

Bovis has blasted its way into the CJ50 at 5 with £156 million worth of private commercial orders gained from only three projects. Bovis was also the only firm to post a management contract in November, where it won nearly £70 million worth of contracts, again in the private commercial arena.

Laing moved up two places to 5 with a healthy total of private commercial work and handy support from other public non-housing contracts. Amec moved into the top 10 at 6, with its best sector proving to be infrastructure work. Edmund Nuttall rose from 19 last month to 7 thanks to its winning a £23.5 million contract for highways maintenance in Area 17 - Lancashire, for the Highways Agency. The firm also secured a £9 million contract for flood alleviation works on Humberside for client the Environment Agency.

Balfour Beatty dropped back from last month's high of 3 to 8, with its chief wins being an £11.5 million office refurbishment contract in London for PACE and a £7.7 million health club for EICC in Edinburgh. Mowlem moved into the top 10, with other public non-housing proving to be its most lucrative sector of work.

HBG Construction settled back from 4 to 10, but still pulled in a handy £33 million worth of private commercial work - the principal contract was a £15.9 million leisure complex for THI Leisure in the Wirral. Just behind at 11 is Kier which also benefited the most from private commercial orders as did Try Construction which came in at 12 from outside the top 50.

notable

Try's most notable job was a £9.5 million contract for the Wellcome Break Group covering motorway services in the Hereford and Worcester region.

The cluster of Birse, Mansell/ Hall and Tawse and Morgan Sindall Group all tapped in to the private commercial sector, though public housing and other public non-housing played their part. Alfred McAlpine dropped back from last month's high at 2 down to 18 with all its work coming from the infrastructure sector, including an £8.2 million roadworks scheme on the M6 between junctions 13-16 for Staffordshire County Council.

Other public-non housing work pushed Jarvis up from 30 to 18, while Morrison clinched a useful spread of public housing, infrastructure and private commercial work. The top 20 was rounded off by Tilbury Douglas, which also capitalised on the pool of private commercial work.

Other notable performers in November including Dean and Dyball which moved from 50 to 22. Lovell, Clugston and Galliford all remained largely unchanged, while the top 30 saw new entries in the form of Watkin Jones and Llewellyn. Styles and Wood also had a good month with nearly £12 million worth of fit out work in the private commercial sector, while Haymills at 31 pulled in almost as much work from the same area.

November proved a thinner month by their standards for Willmott Dixon, Amey, Costain and Miller, all of whom languish the wrong side of the top 30.

The race to secure the top contractor for 1998 has only one month to go and big wins for Bovis this month have helped the firm pull away from Tarmac which in turn moved ahead of Laing. However, with a difference of only £70 million between them, will Bovis' wins be enough to keep Tarmac as well as Laing and Kvaerner at bay? The next CJ50 out in January 1999 will reveal all.