The continued prevalence of energy projects across the Gulf Coast is one of the main reasons specialty contractors are seeing largely stable or increasing workloads in Texas and Louisiana.
Also, the steady influx in 2014 of new residents seeking to fill the region’s plentiful job openings means more work for contractors. The need for more service infrastructure to support a growing population has bolstered new construction, as evidenced by the number of health care facilities, office buildings and apartment complexes, along with energy work, that were cited by the top 10 firms as their largest projects to break ground in 2014.
The 100 companies that responded to this year’s Top Specialty Contractors survey reported a total of $8.17 billion in regional revenue in 2014, up $746.7 million over the previous year. That growth was double the gain seen in the previous year’s survey.
Adapting to Markets
Electrical sector work held steady for The Newtron Group. The firm’s regional revenue reached $280 million for 2014, little changed from $282 million in 2013, and putting Newtron at No. 7 in the ranking.
“Inexpensive and readily available natural gas has been the larger driver to our business over this past year,” says John Schempf, vice president of operations at Newtron. “Our midstream work has been steady, and we were not too exposed to the oil exploration business, which has helped insulate us a bit from that downturn.”
Schempf adds that Newtron’s backlog continued to be strong from a capital projects standpoint. “Even though some of our locations in Louisiana and Texas realized smaller backlogs, other offices were able to compensate with larger backlogs. Both our Baton Rouge and Houston offices experienced record volume years.”
Schempf says that the remainder of 2015 looks good, with a steady stream of projects in the works, combined with a healthy backlog. “The current prospects are solid, but we have some concerns as it relates to mid-2016 and beyond once the projects on our current backlogs are completed.”
Newtron also has several projects coming up that will run through the end of the year and into 2016, with plenty of work out for bids. Read more…
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