In this article we take a look at the 15 largest EPC companies in the world. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 largest EPC companies in the world.
The largest EPC companies in the world are responsible for the top turnkey projects worldwide. These are the companies which bring magnanimous engineering and construction projects to reality through their expertise.
So what is an EPC company? Simply put, EPC companies are engaged in engineering, procurement, and construction services on contract basis, for contracts awarded for particular project work. Therefore, the projects handled by an EPC company can lie in varied domains, awarded on a turnkey basis. Even though these companies are primarily involved in construction, the sectors they cater to might fall in a diversified range. For example, an EPC company can be involved in completion of projects for the Oil and Gas industry or plant projects for the Power sector.
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While the largest construction companies might be involved in turnkey construction projects, it is the format of EPC contracts that separate the EPC companies. Often, the two terms turnkey and EPC are used interchangeably, but in reality there are differences between the two and EPC can be a broader concept. While, in EPC, like turnkey, projects are awarded on a contract to commissioning basis on a predetermined time and budget or a Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) contract, the nature of EPC contracts can be different. In an EPC contract the client has no responsibility to oversee the work of other sub-contractors deployed by the main contractor, as the contracts are awarded independently and might be for a part of or certain area of the project. In a turnkey contract on the other hand the client’s authority prevails over the sub-contractors as well. These projects are generally awarded on a start to finish basis. The contractor is responsible for the complete execution of the projects and hands the client the project in a ready to start condition.
The EPC market in the oil and gas sector is expected to grow at 6.5% between 2020-2027, and has many prominent players like South Korean giant Samsung Engineering and UK’s Petrofac. In the last few years, competition in the oil and gas sector has gotten acutely fierce, especially in the Middle East as contract awards are on a declining trend while major players are vying for the few contracts in the pipeline. This has sparked changes and developments in the EPC markets as companies are required to be more ambitious and be prepared against the ever-changing industry requirements. However, as some of the largest energy companies such as Saudi Aramco are investing into redevelopment of older assets, some EPC companies in the upstream have reaped the benefits.
To arrive at our list of the largest EPC companies in the world, we have ranked each EPC player by their 2019 revenues, and have also reported their number of employees, which enunciates the scale on which these companies operate. EPC companies often are labor intensive; however, the workforce can be a complex mix of permanent and temporary employees, as well as subcontractors. While there are some major American players like Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) and KBR (NYSE:KBR), there are quite a few Asian players that are leading the market. A major player Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (NYSE:CBI) was merged into McDermott (NYSE:MDRIQ) in 2018, though unfortunately McDermott has suffered to bring the integration into fruitful effect and obtain synergy and has recently filed for bankruptcy.
Let’s take a look at the 15 largest EPC Companies in the world!
15. Bilfinger
Revenue – $ 5,176.93 million
Number of employees – 35,905
Germany based civil and industrial construction, engineering and services company, Bilfinger mainly caters to the energy and utilities sector. The company was awarded a series of EPC contracts by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in 2019, with some projects being due for completion in 2020.
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