Order situation at ZÜBLIN at all-time high

• 2016 financial year closed with record order backlog
• Construction output for 2016, with € 3.4 billion, at nearly the previous year’s level
• Good start to Q1 2017 with output plus of 9 %

Stuttgart-based Ed. Züblin AG, Germany’s leading building construction and civil engineering company, has started the new year with the highest order backlog in company history. The very good order situation results in a high use of capacities and a positive outlook for the ongoing financial year. 

The volume of new orders of the ZÜBLIN Group in 2016 increased by € 1.9 billion, or 60.2 %, to about € 5 billion for a level that was considerably higher than the previous year’s value. The new orders grew by about 58 % in Germany and about 68 % abroad. With a volume of € 3.3 billion, turnkey construction accounted for 66 % of the total volume of new orders. In civil engineering, tunnelling and ground engineering, the company was able to more than double its volume of new orders to € 1.6 billion. Of the group’s new orders, € 3.6 billion, or 73 %, were acquired in Germany – compared to 74 % the previous year. The four largest new contracts in Germany in 2016 were the Axel Springer building and the Adlershof office building in Berlin, MesseCity Cologne and adidas World of Sports in Herzogenaurach. 

The construction output amounted to € 3.4 billion, only slightly below the previous year’s value. The output reached € 2,446 million in Germany and € 951 million abroad. Of the total output, 28 % was generated abroad in the period under report (previous year 27 %), thereof 17 % in Europe and 11 % in the rest of the world.

The order backlog of the ZÜBLIN group reached € 5.7 billion at the end of 2016, a plus of about 42 % and a historic high. Growth was seen in all business fields. The increases were especially clear in Germany, which grew from € 2.7 billion to € 4.0 billion. Abroad, the order backlog grew by € 400 million to € 1.7 billion. The order backlog thus is far above one year’s output volume (average of 20 months) and is contributing to a high use of capacities in Germany and abroad. 

On the reporting date of 31 December 2016, the ZÜBLIN group had a total of 13,753 employees, compared to 13,983 in the previous year. While the number of employees increased slightly in Germany to 7,561, it fell back among blue-collar workers in places like the Middle East and Chile. 

The ongoing financial year began on a promising note for Ed. Züblin AG. The order backlog stood at € 5.7 billion on 31 March 2017, considerably above the previous year’s level of € 4.1 billion. The output volume for the first three months of the year grew by 9 % from € 716 million to € 779 million. Only the volume of new orders, with € 739 million, failed to reach the very high value of the previous year (€ 798 million) as the previous year’s figure had been influenced by several large orders. The three largest new ZÜBLIN contracts in the first quarter are in industrial construction and involve the new construction of the “Factory of the Future” for cable manufacturer LEONI in Roth and the turnkey construction of production facilities for Daimler in Sindelfingen and Boysen in Simmersfeld. ZÜBLIN had 13,519 employees on the reporting date of 31 March 2017, 219 more than in the previous year.