Skanska books record $6.94B in Q3 orders on data center demand

Skanska booked 68 billion Swedish krona ($6.94 billion) in new work in the third quarter, tying the company record it set just one quarter earlier. Data centers and semiconductor facilities accounted for 22.7 billion krona of that total — roughly a third — CEO Anders Danielsson told Construction Dive in an interview after the Thursday earnings report. New work in the U.S. amounted to 46.9 billion krona, about 70% of everything the Stockholm-based builder won.

The record order intake coincided with record backlog: Skanska counted 328.3 billion krona worth of work on the books.

Which sectors carried the quarter?

The biggest performers for Skanska continue to be the best sectors for U.S. construction at large: data center and infrastructure construction. Danielsson said he predicts the company will keep finding success in the public and data center sectors in the months ahead.

The numbers behind the quarter:

• 68 billion krona ($6.94 billion) in Q3 order bookings, a company record for the second consecutive quarter.
• 22.7 billion krona from data centers and semiconductor facilities, about a third of the total.
• 46.9 billion krona in new U.S. work, roughly 70% of all bookings.
• 328.3 billion krona in record backlog.

Where does Skanska grow next?

Danielsson said Skanska aims to expand its U.S. construction business, and named the targets. Civil work leads the list.

"On the civil side, we're looking to Florida, Utah and Arizona, for example. We have a presence there on the building side, but we're looking into increasing the civil operation," he said.

Offices from neighboring states have begun to pursue infrastructure projects in those newer locales, Danielsson said, though he characterized progress as "incremental." For contractors watching Skanska's footprint, the signal is clear: the company is pushing civil operations into states where it already builds, rather than opening entirely new territories.

How does the company manage risk?

Selectivity. Danielsson framed disciplined project selection as Skanska's primary mitigation in a market where the strongest sectors are also the most contested.

"Our biggest mitigation is to continue to be selective and stay to our strategy to go for projects where we see that we have a competitive advantage, a good relationship with the client and also that we have the right team in place, right resources available," Danielsson told Construction Dive.

That discipline has meant walking away. Skanska turns down projects where it lacks boots on the ground or established subcontractor relationships — particularly with electricians for data center builds. The electrician constraint matters: data center schedules live or die on electrical trade capacity, and Skanska will not chase contracts it cannot staff.

"We turn down projects where we don't see that we can hook up with the right partners there," he said.

What do the midterms change?

Despite the major political shift in Washington brought on by the midterm elections, Danielsson said he does not foresee much change for Skanska in its biggest sectors. His reasoning draws on half a century of operating history.

"In our experience we have been working in the U.S. for more than 50 years in the different administrations and different majorities in the Congress. My experience is, one thing they're reliable on is to invest in traditional infrastructure," he said.

Congress previously extended the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act through Dec. 11. Danielsson was optimistic that representatives were aligned on pursuing the Build America 250 Act to keep funding alive.

Data centers face a different political battlefield: the local ballot. Municipalities across the country have mulled moratoriums on the facilities.

"When it comes to data centers, that always requires local political willingness to give permits for those," he said. "That's something that our clients are working hard with all over the U.S., to find the right places and make sure that we can build them as sustainable as possible."

What did the bottom line show?

Skanska reported 2.1 billion krona in operating income for Q3, up 52% year over year. Construction carried the result almost entirely: 2.3 billion krona came from that section of the business, up 29.2% year over year.

The gap between the two figures traces to 369 million krona in impairment charges against Skanska's residential development business, which dragged total operating income below the construction segment alone.

The record backlog gives Skanska visibility deep into future quarters, while the residential writedown shows where the firm's growth story is not. Expect the U.S. civil push into Florida, Utah and Arizona — incremental as it is — to define the next phase of the company's American expansion.