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Local engineering companies saw an 8% slide in local billings for the 12 months through June as they battled a stagnant economy, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
Only one company out of the 30 largest engineering companies with operations here reported higher billings as tempered consumer spending, tight credit and widespread financial uncertainty contributed to a slowdown in housing, commercial real estate, corporate and government projects.
Eighteen companies re-ported lower billings. One was flat. Ten were Bus-iness Journal estimates.
Combined, the companies had $2.2 billion in local billings for the 12 months through June, compared with $2.4 billion a year earlier.
The figure includes an estimate for Irving, Texas-based Fluor Corp., which has operations in Irvine and Aliso Viejo. Fluor dominates the list with an estimated $1.3 billion in local billings.
Without Fluor, the 29 other companies were down 9% to $918 million.
No. 2 CH2M Hill Cos., which has a Santa Ana office, held steady from last year, seeing a 1% drop in revenue to $356.3 million. The Englewood, Colo.-based company has won program management jobs around the world in the past few years, including the expansion of the Panama Canal, infrastructure development for the London 2012 Olympic Games and sewage work in London and the United Arab Emirates.
The company also leaned on its climate change consulting and sustainability work to weather the recession. Similar to many other companies on the list, CH2M Hill focused on the public sector and stimulus dollars.
No. 13 Owen Design Group, based in Irvine, held flat with $18 million in billings. No. 5 Pasadena-based Jacobs, which has offices in Santa Ana and Cypress, was only company to improve revenue. It had a 3.9% increase in local billings to $48 million.
Decliners
Others didn’t fare as well.
This marks the second year of less business for engineering companies on the list. That’s the first time that’s happened here in more than a decade.
No. 6 RBF Consulting saw the largest dollar drop in billings, falling more than $16 million from $60.2 million, a 27% drop.
Stantec Consulting Services Inc., which has an Irvine office, saw the biggest percentage drop in billings at 48% to $14.5 million, pushing the Canadian company down to No. 17.
No. 10 TRC Cos. Inc. had the second highest slide in local billings, dropping 42% to $20.7 million.
The Massachusetts company, which operates an Irvine office, primarily does environmental engineering and consulting work.
Government contracts have helped TRC but haven’t offset losses in its transportation division, which is down about 50% from last year, according to Ross Leu, who leads the transportation unit.
The company wrapped up a multiyear, $14 million consultancy project earlier this year on a freeway interchange and car pool lane connector in Seal Beach.
There’s hope for a better 2011.
Construction costs have dropped as much as 50% by some estimates, which could spur more work for engineers as some look to capitalize on the lower costs.
Government work fueled by stimulus dollars also is making its way down to some companies.
RBF has $46 million in backlog work, largely from public works projects.
The company’s recent drop in billings “was primarily on the private development side, with strength and backlog figures attributable to the public side of our civil engineering, planning, surveying and construction management work,” Co-Chief Executive Bob Kallenbaugh said.
RBF’s government work includes transportation projects with Orange County Transpor-tation Authority and Lake Forest, water projects for the Irvine Ranch Water District and planning, water projects and surveying for the county of Orange.
“Agencies throughout California will have available money jump-starting other projects,” TRC’s Leu said.
While TRC was not a direct recipient of stimulus dollars, it did benefit from extra federal money granted to OCTA, which oversees the San Diego (I-405) Freeway project.
That project, slated for construction in the fall, is expected to generate jobs here.
Engineering companies cut 11% percent of their local workers for a total of 5,671 employees here. The number of licensed engineers here stayed flat, dropping just one across the board.
Fluor cut 390 people for a total of 1,600 local employees, by far the most of any company. But it still employs 1,143 more workers than the second largest employer on the list, No. 3 Aecom Technology Corp., which saw employment drop 3% to 457.
Most of Fluor’s business has been impacted by the downturn and slow recovery.
For the six months through June, total revenue for Fluor was $10 billion, down 9% from a year earlier. Net earnings were down 19% to $332 million.
Company officials, which declined to break out numbers for the list, said in a recent earnings report that the company’s decrease in revenue and profits was “primarily due to the global recession, changing market conditions and a decline in the demand for new capacity in the refining, petrochemical and polysilicon markets.”
Irvine-based Brown and Caldwell was one of two newcomers on the list, coming in at No. 28, even with an 18% revenue drop to $6.5 million. The other debut was No. 30 Dallas-based Huitt-Zollars Inc.’s Irvine office, which was down 10% to $5 million in billings.
