Revenue down for Webuild

Webuild (formally Salini Impregilo) has announced that in the first half of 2020 revenues were €2.21 billion (US$2.59 billion), a decline compared to the first half of 2019 when revenues were €2.70 billion (US$3.17 billion).

The Italian-based contractor said in a press release that results for the first half of 2020 were impacted by the restrictions imposed by clients and governments due to Covid-19. This resulted in a decline in production, first in Italy and Europe, then in Latin America and in the Middle East.

The company added that, with a few exceptions, operations have restarted, although not all of them have returned to the same production levels as before lockdown. A return to full production is expected in the second half of 2020.

The main contributions to the revenues for the period came from major projects including those of US subsidiary Lane, the Milan-Genoa high-speed railway, works in Ethiopia, works in Australia for the Perth light rail transit line and for the civil and electromechanical works for the Snowy 2.0 hydroelectric plant, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh metro and the Rogun dam in Tajikistan.

Webuild has a total order backlog of €33.9 billion (US$39.8 billion), of which €27.4 billion (US$32.2 billion) is related to construction and €6.3 billion (US$7.4 billion) to concessions.

“The results of this semestre and the future prospects on which we have worked during these months confirm to us that we are on the right path to confront the global difficulties. We are ready to increase in size and seize the best opportunities in Italy and markets where they are investing more in infrastructure as a countercyclical measure,” commented Webuild CEO Pietro Salini.

“Nobody could have predicted the pandemic, but for nearly two years we have worked on a special project for the sector: Progetto Italia, under which we have brought together public institutions, banks and companies to create a bigger and more solid group. As it is set to become one of the biggest in Europe, we are today ready to meet in a methodic and determined way any future challenge.”

Salini added that Webuild would have a combined record of having built more than 80,000km of roads, 13,600km of rail and metro lines, nearly 1,000km of bridges, 313 dams and hydroelectric plants.