Granite revenues rise

US contractor Granite Construction recorded a +9% year-on-year increase in third quarter revenues to US$ 728.6 million, driven by increases in both its construction and large project construction divisions.

Construction revenue for the quarter increased +5% to US$ 431.1 million, while large project construction sales were up +26% to US$ 213.3 million.

Offsetting this, the company’s construction materials sales for the quarter slipped by US$ 4.9 million year-on-year to US$ 83.2 million. Granite said demand for construction materials remained weak throughout most of its markets in the West.

Operating income increased by US$ 28.2 million compared to a year ago, to reach US$ 60.4 million in the third quarter. Granite has been working throughout the year to reduce its overheads, and brought down its selling, general and administrative expenses for the third quarter by US$ 8 million to US$ 39.1 million. This was primarily due to a 2010 workforce reduction.

Granite president and CEO James Roberts said, “Overall, our business continues to operate well in the face of a very challenging environment. We are successfully lowering our cost structure, holding margins in a very competitive market and executing well on our backlog of work."

Granites contract backlog at September 30, 2011, was US$ 1.8 billion, compared with US$ 1.6 billion at the same point in 2010.