Saipem’s Engineering & Construction business unit has notched up nearly US $8 Bn in contracts so far this year, more than 50% of the unit’s new contract acquisition target for 2013, according to the Italian contractor.

The total value of new contracts acquired from January this year to date in the business unit (some of which will be announced in the next few weeks, it added) is approximately €6.1 Bn ($7.9 Bn), it confirmed. This supports the likelihood of achieving a full-year order intake, similar to recent years, of approximately €11 Bn ($14 Bn), said Saipem.

The company’s CEO, U. Vergine, commented: “Although this is a partial intermediate result for 2013, we are very pleased; not only does it help guarantee our target activity levels in Saipem, but we are progressing with our objective of improving the marginality of our order backlog. The E&C contracts acquired since January imply margins that so far represent an improvement of at least 40% compared with those acquired in 2012.”