Domestic orders won by South Korean construction companies fell 26.8 percent in July from a year earlier due to sluggish demand from the public sector, a report said Wednesday.

   According to the report by the Construction Association of Korea (CAK), South Korea's construction companies clinched a combined 6.35 trillion won (US$5.93 billion) worth of new orders in July, down 26.8 percent from the same month last year.

   Orders from the public sector almost halved to 2.35 trillion won from the previous year. Public sector orders for engineering works shrank 49.8 percent on-year, falling for 12 consecutive months, and construction orders nosedived 86.5 percent.

   In contrast, orders from the private sector dropped a mere 0.4 percent on-year to 4.49 trillion won with engineering projects jumping 77.1 percent but housing construction falling 19.9 percent.

   The CAK said the local construction market is hardly expected to improve due to the U.S.-led financial crisis and the South Korean government's move to curb snowballing household debt.

   But the public sector is likely to gradually recover as the government plans to start work on the construction of new offices of public agencies, the CAK added.

Source: Yonhap News (Sept. 7, 2011)