Balfour Beatty on track despite tough environment

Infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty said it was on track to meet its full year expectations in spite of difficult conditions in the construction industry.

The firm said that in the first quarter its order book had been maintained at a level in excess of £15bn and continued to give it good visibility going forward.

Its construction services order book was slightly lower than at the year-end, with orders in its international businesses and in rail partly offsetting shortfalls in the UK and the US.

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Margins also continued to be squeezed in construction, it said.

However, the company added there were some signs of recovery in the US, supported by positive leading indicators for the fifth consecutive month, which it expects to benefit from later in the year.

As anticipated, the UK construction market remained challenging, with revenue unchanged from the first quarter of 2011.

Balfour said that it continued to make good progress with the implementation of a cost efficiency programme it announced in 2010.

It expects to reach the targeted savings of £30m a year by 2013.

"We are accelerating our ongoing cost efficiency and PPP asset disposal programmes, and have confidence that these initiatives will underpin our performance," the firm said.

"This should ensure that we make progress in 2012."