HDEC workers leave for Antarctic from New Zealand in mid-November to complete South Korea's second research station in the frozen continent by early next year. (Yonhap file photo)
Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. (HDEC), South Korea's largest builder, said Sunday that its cumulative overseas orders have topped US$100 billion, 48 years after its first inroad into the offshore construction market.
HDEC, now affiliated with the Hyundai Motor Group, said it recently won a $1.4 billion contract to build an oil refinery plant in Latin America, raising the amount of its cumulative overseas orders to $101.05 billion (107 trillion won).
The milestone has been achieved 48 years after the contractor obtained an order to build an expressway in Thailand in 1965 in the company's first overseas project, company officials said.
HDEC has since carried out 780 more construction projects in 55 countries worldwide.
HDEC's aggregate volume of offshore orders accounts for approximately 17 percent of the South Korean construction sector's cumulative overseas orders of $597 billion, they noted.
They added 54 percent of HDEC's overseas orders came from the Middle East, with Asia accounting for 32 percent.
(Yonhap)