Samsung C&T won a huge project in Australia worth 6.5 trillion won recently involving the construction of infrastructure for a Roy Hill Holdings iron mine, the company said recently.

The construction affiliate of Samsung Group has been working on the project since 2010 and recently got the NOA (notice of award) for the project from the Australian mining company, the company said, for AU$5.59 billion. The company added that it is the first huge project it clinched since it expanded its project territory to include infrastructural projects overseas in 2010.

Vice Chairman Chung Yeon-joo said, “We were able to clinch the project because we tendered our bid based on a thorough study of the local conditions to make our prices and other bidding conditions competitive. We will complete diverse projects overseas with our superb world-level technologies for plant construction in particular.” 

The project is located in Western Australia and involves the construction of plants, railroad, harbor, and other infrastructure for an iron ore mine, which will handle the 55 million tons of iron ore to be dug up from the mine annually. The project is scheduled for completion in November 2015, just 32 months from now. The length of the railroad to transport iron ore to a harbor and the support facilities to be built total some 340 km. The mine is believed to have 2.4 billion tons of iron ore in reserves.

For the successful completion of the project, Samsung Construction will strengthen its ties with local builders and get consultation services from local consultants for the project.

The Australian project is a symbol of Samsung Construction’ s success in its strategy to beef up and diversify its overseas projects during the past three to four years and is a huge milestone not only for Samsung, but also for the overseas construction industry as a whole as it will be a big help in the industry’ s target to secure $70 billion worth of construction projects overseas in 2013.

Samsung Construction has been engaged in a strategy to expand its overseas projects to the mining infrastructure sector by hiring manpower and setting up organizations to advance the strategy.

The Roy Hill mine project is the largest such project in the world costing AU$10 billion and Samsung Construction will take charge of the part of the project involving the construction of plants, railroad, and harbor along with support facilities. The company is in the middle of trying to secure another project to build a port in northern Queensland, which will facilitate the loading of 60 million tons of coal annually.

The Construction Association of Korea said the value of overseas construction projects that Korean builders captured this year as of the end of March totaled $15.781 billion, more than doubled the amount YoY, for a total of 182 cases, up 47 cases over the same period last year.

CAK officials said until about a year ago, Korean builders won overseas projects mostly in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia and Libya, but now they get them from everywhere in the world including Asia, Central and South America, and Oceania. The projects are diverse, too, including many harbor and natural resources infrastructure projects, showing that they won’ t have much trouble meeting the target of $70 billion.