The spread of coronavirus lowered the value of projects awarded by Kuwait to local companies by nearly 40 percent in the first half of 2020, news reports showed on Sunday.

From around 840 million Kuwaiti dinars ($2.77 billion) in the first half of 2019, the value of projects awarded to firms listed on the local bourse plunged to nearly 500 million dinars ($1.65 billion), the Arabic language daily Alanba said, citing government statistics.

The decline was more underscored in the second quarter of 2020, when the value of contracts dipped by nearly 57 percent to 150 million dinars ($495 million) from around 350 million dinars ($1.15 billion) in the second quarter of 2019, the report showed.

"The sharp decline in awarded contracts was mainly due to the repercussions of the Corona pandemic in Kuwait," the report said.

It showed the number of companies which won contracts dropped to 13 in the first half of 2020 from 20 in the first half of 2019 but the number of awarded projects increased to 39 from 33 in the same period.

The largest contract in the first half of 2020 was awarded by the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company with a value of 127.7 million dinars ($421.5 million), the report showed.

Sector-wise, oil projects topped the list of awarded contracts this year, with a value of 221.3 million dinars ($730 million) or 44 percent of the total contracts.

Construction projects came second, with a value of about 157.3 million dinars ($519 million), nearly 31 percent of the total awarded contracts, according to the report.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

#Kuwait #Oilandgas #Construction #Coronavirus

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