compared with the oil crisis in 1981s, the global construction industry has gradually stepped out of the trough since 1991s. In order to adapt to the ever-changing macro-economic and construction market environment, large international contractors generally adjust their business strategies, improve their competitiveness, and improve their market adaptability while forming a relatively stable market share, so as to achieve healthy and sustainable development. According to the ranking of large international contractors by Standard & Poor's, an internationally renowned consulting organization, the ranking of the top companies is basically stable.

1 the overall situation of enterprise operation

after experiencing the trough, large international contractors are constantly maturing, and by strengthening their core competitiveness, they are dividing the market share in different regions and fields.

1.1 expansion of business area

large international contractors continue to expand their business areas to achieve their goal of global transnational operation. According to ENR survey, the turnover announced by 225 powerful contractors in 195 was 448 billion US dollars. Although there is no reliable information about global construction enterprises, the actual turnover should be much larger than the survey reflected in ENR. Similarly, according to statistics from ENR and the U.S. Department of Commerce, only 17% of the top 411 contractors in the United States, or $547 billion, have completed new construction in the United States. Bechtel Company in San Francisco is the biggest competitor, with operating income of $4.2 billion that year, accounting for 1.7% of the total. In fact, there are huge regional differences in the global construction market capacity. For example, although the amount of engineering construction is related to the developed degree of power production, chemical industry and oil refining industry, in North America and Western Europe, this kind of engineering construction is limited to some extent. In contrast, there is a huge demand for engineering in this field in America and Asia, which provides opportunities for sustainable business growth for large global contractors. Typical major projects, such as the Three Gorges Project, a large-scale water conservancy project in China, have a large amount of work, which provides a stage for famous contractors from all over the world to compete. In addition, the Asia-Pacific region has become a new manufacturing base, and there are still a large number of various engineering projects to be built. It is a very broad construction market space, and large European and American contractors are bound to launch fierce market competition in this region.

1.2 expansion of business field

from table 1, it can be seen that ordinary construction projects account for the largest part of the global contractor's market share. However, the higher the ranking, the more international large contractors tend to integrate their activities into the industrial environment, emphasizing those projects that can generate added value through the application of specialized technology or management capabilities, key groups or financial support. For example, the petrochemical industry project, which combines petrochemical, chemical, oil refining, gas, process equipment and so on. In 2119-96, global capital involved about 38 billion US dollars, and most of the activities of this market share will take place in the Asia-Pacific region. For example, China invested nearly $31 billion in the petrochemical industry by 2111.

another project contracting market comes from the rising privatization of infrastructure by the government. This will include expressway, railways, drinking water supply, telecommunication system and energy production. According to the World Bank, it will bring a market of $61 billion a year.

however, in the field of private-funded ordinary buildings, whether in a healthy economic environment or not, large international contractors are generally not interested in the market in this field, mainly because they are worried that the bubble economy, such as the cyclical fluctuation risk of the real estate development market, is very great.

relatively speaking, the public * * * fund project constitutes a very solid market share, showing a small fluctuation in the economic cycle. It includes schools, prisons, hospitals and investment projects such as transportation, water supply and drainage. This relative stability comes from the continuous and stable reconstruction or repair of existing infrastructure and public facilities. The rapid economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region is supporting the demand for stable new infrastructure construction.

1.3 Improvement of business reputation

Due to the increase of government public projects, the government has strengthened the requirements for the reputation level of large contractors in the bidding of large public projects for the sake of the safety of the use of funds. However, large contractors are keen on bidding for public projects because of their relatively low risk, which has aroused the attention to improve their commercial reputation. Standard & Poor's company's increase in the reputation ranking of large contractors is a powerful example of this phenomenon. The pursuit of improving business reputation by enterprises and the ranking of contractors' reputation by intermediaries greatly promote the reliability of owners in selecting contractors and reduce investment risks. In order to improve business reputation, large contractors have adopted various ways of capital operation, seeking long-term low-cost and low-risk operating funds in the public market through various channels, and trying their best to reduce short-term commercial capital lending. Although many large contractors expect an increase in the use of available long-term debt, they still want to remain moderate in practice. In addition, contractors with high reputation also have certain advantages in obtaining the project progress payment allocated by the owner, thus reducing the construction financing and helping to reduce the financial risks of large contractors.

2 successful business strategies for the survival and development of international large-scale contractors

From the ranking of Standard & Poor's and ENR, many famous international large-scale contractors have relatively stable reputation and business performance, mainly due to similar and effective business strategies.

2.1 clear main market

Although diversification of business projects is beneficial to reduce dependence on markets in some specific fields, it is very desirable to give full play to the core advantages of enterprises and highlight their competitive advantages in specific markets, and to concentrate the strength of enterprises on a number of industries or fields with sufficient contracted volume so as to obtain sufficient marginal profits and relatively stable income.

2.2 Good business reputation

A perfect market and a solid reputation are conducive to the success of large contractors in bidding and the smooth and reliable implementation of engineering projects, and the supervision of owners and the cost of information exchange can be effectively controlled. In addition, considering their own future, the owners are reluctant to contract the project to little-known contractors easily.

2.3 rational clients

although the profit margin of competitive bidding for public projects is generally lower than that of private clients, in a stable political environment, the government-sponsored public projects have reliable sources of income, and this advantage is offset by the disadvantages of low profits. Therefore, successful large-scale contractors will make rational choices to make enterprises strive for progress in stability.

2.4 Wide range of customers

Successful large-scale contractors have a rich customer base, and form a long-term and stable cooperative relationship with customers, thus forming a value partnership of mutual trust, so that the operation of the whole company will not be affected by individual customers.

2.5 Regional Diversity

Diversified projects can reduce dependence on specific areas and reduce risks to areas with unstable engineering quantities. Not only do large contractors want to operate globally, but also because of the globalization of the owners' own business development, it also hopes that large contractors with close cooperation with them can develop with them.

2.6 business diversity

the business activities of large contractors are greatly affected by regional or industrial cycle fluctuations. In order to provide income sources that are less affected by changes and fluctuations, some companies (such as Flodaniel in the United States) invest in coal mines, while others are involved in the operation of toll roads, the treatment of solid waste, the management of infrastructure and the leasing of equipment.

2.7 extended service scope

with the development trend of design-build, build-operate-transfer projects, the complexity of the projects is increasing, which puts greater pressure on large contractors to broaden their service scope. In this way, if you can become the sole provider of a certain service, it will bring competitive advantage.

2.8 market selection according to one's ability

Enterprises must show their technical expertise, shape their technological advantages and core competitiveness, and do what they can. Successful contractors will not choose a project bidding that far exceeds their existing technical strength.

2.9 Reasonable and effective partnership

The average project size is a factor in the ranking of companies. If there are few projects, but the scale of the projects is too large, the company will face high risks caused by concentration. However, a large number of small projects will lead to decentralized management of resources and reduced control. In order to share risks, we can establish reasonable and effective partnerships and build joint risks, which is also conducive to the globalization strategy of enterprises.

2.11 Reasonable contract composition

The bidding competition of most large-scale projects is fierce, which lies in the competition of "cost+fixed fee" or "fixed price/total fee". The former method reduces the contracting risk and limits the profit potential. In this way, the strong performance of cost estimation ability will provide the contractors who bid at a fixed price with the prospect of gaining profits beyond the average level.

2.11 flexible cost structure

Low unit cost is a necessary factor to ensure competitiveness in bidding and contracting. Successful identification and low-cost methods to achieve customer goals can also improve profits. Successful large contractors have flexible cost structure to adapt to the cold and warm market conditions.

3 development prospect

the globalization of international large-scale contractors' operation and the rationalization and diversification of market selection have avoided the risks caused by the over-concentration of the regional market of engineering products, and at the same time reduced the overall fluctuation of the international construction industry, and the market trend and comprehensive ranking of enterprises tend to be stable. On the road of future business development, large contractors will not simply expand their business fields by expanding design and construction services. They have widely included the project operation and management after the completion of the project into their own business scope, effectively combining traditional production and operation with popular capital operation, thus resulting in the diversity of global project delivery methods. This change also provides an additional buffer for the traditional industrial cycle and plays a positive role in the overall stable development of the industry. The different ways of project delivery are mainly reflected in the way of project investment and the final distribution of project benefits. Undoubtedly, large international contractors not only participate in project investment more and more, but also benefit from project construction through rational investment, which leads to the trend of capital concentration of enterprise business development, and enterprises bear greater responsibility for contracted projects. The extension of product value chain also makes enterprises bear more risks to a certain extent, but these risks play a neutralizing role with other risks of avoiding traditional project delivery methods. In order to further reduce risks, large international contractors will still adjust and optimize their financial strategies, expand the internal free capital flow, continue to consolidate the existing core forces, and adopt various ways to establish partnerships in the supply chain of engineering products, adjust the competitive structure and share risks. These trends will lay a solid foundation for the steady development of large global contractors.

for more information about the engineering/service/procurement bidding, and to improve the winning rate, you can click on the bottom of official website Customer Service for free consultation:/#/? source=bdzd