Downer this week announced $155 million in contract wins through its engineering, construction and maintenance division, including mining and energy deals with Chevron and Alcoa in Western Australia, and BHP in South Australia.
Non-mining deals also made up a part of the $155 million, including contracts with WaterNSW and Moly Cop in New South Wales and Synergy in WA for the maintenance, shutdown and support of its Muja power station.
Downer chief executive officer, engineering, construction and maintenance, Brendan Petersen, said that the contracts were a testament to Downer’s operations, maintenance and services capabilities.
“We look forward to working closely with these customers, providing a high level of service and delivering on our commitments,” he said.
Downer today released its half-year results (ending December 31, 2017) and posted an overall net loss of $15.9 million, a far cry from its posting of $78.2 million in profit the previous year.
In November last year, Downer took a $40 million loss on its freight rail business, which it sold. The company also made the news when its highly publicised $2 billion Carmichael project deal with Adani fell through in December last year after the latter decided to take on the project itself as owner-operator.
Fortescue Metals Group took a similar approach in 2016 when it switched to an owner-operator model at the Christmas Creek iron ore mine in WA, a decision that saw Downer’s share price drop by 10 per cent at the time.
More positively though, Downer also won a $400 million contract services contract at the Gruyere gold project in Western Australia during the same period.