EXCLUSIVE: All change in global top 10

Vinci was the world's largest contractor in 2007 according to the results of International Construction's annual ranking of the worlds largest construction companies. Fellow French company Bouygues maintained its second place, but further down the top 10 there were major changes.

New in third position is Spain's ACS, rising two places from fifth last year. The company pushed the largest US company in the ranking, Bechtel, down one place to fourth.

Fifth and sixth places are taken by Chinese contractors, with China Railway Construction Corporation taking a huge leap up 17 positions from no. 23 in last year's rankings. Also new to the top 10 this year is China Communications Construction Group in ninth place.

Spain's Ferrovial is the other new addition to the top 10, in eighth position, while Hochtief and Skanska lost places compared to their rankings in last year's edition of the table.

For the first time in the league table's history, there are no Japanese companies in the global top 10. The highest placed this year was Kajima - last year's eighth placed company - at no. 14. Taisei also fell sharply, ranking at no. 17 this year, compared to no. 10 last year.

But the biggest fall from last year's top 10 was for Lennar of the US. The house building specialist was ranked seventh in last year's rankings, but this year has been placed at no. 31, some 24 places lower. This is just one of the symptoms of the residential construction crash in the US, which has seen operating profit margins for the 44 US companies in the global top 200 fall from 6.52% last year (based on 2006 results) to an operating loss of -5.08% 12 months on.

For more analysis of the world's 200 largest construction contractors, as well as the full league table, see the July-August edition of International Construction, which will be published in early August.

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