Shaw reports US$ 70 million Q3 loss

US-based contractor Shaw Group reported a third quarter loss of US$ 69.9 million, compared to income of US$ 68.2 million in the same three months of last year, after being hit with costs and impairments totalling US$ 160.9 million.

Shaw said that unspecified "subcontractor execution issues" resulted in US$ 112.8 million in cost increases to the company on an energy and chemicals project.

In addition, the company sustained an accounting impairment of US$ 48.1 million on loans it made to Nuclear Innovation North America's South Texas Project - a plan to expand a US nuclear facility that was mooted in March in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Shaw said it was pursuing recovery from partially manufactured equipment and other assets related to the project.

Chairman, president and chief executive, Jim Bernhard, said the loss came after "an extremely challenging and disappointing quarter".

"Although these two projects had significant negative impacts on our financial results for the quarter, we are encouraged that most of our segments continue to demonstrate strong operational performance," Mr Bernhard said.

The company reported revenues of US$ 1.5 billion for the third quarter, down from US$ 1.8 billion for the same period in 2010.

Meanwhile, Shaw's order backlog totalled US$ 19.7 billion at the end of the fiscal third quarter of 2011, and the company said it was awarded a further US$ 500 million engineering, procurement and construction contract for Entergy to build the Ninemile 550 MW natural gas plant in Louisiana, US, after the reporting period had closed.

Shaw forecast revenues of between US$ 6.2 billion and US$ 6.5 billion for the fiscal 2012 year