Domestic construction orders drop for 2nd straight month in Feb.

Domestic orders won by Korean construction companies dropped for the second straight month in February, the Construction Association of Korea said Wednesday.

Construction firms won new orders worth a combined 5.69 trillion won (US$4.9 billion) at home in February, down 39 percent from 9.1 trillion won tallied in the same period of last year, the association said.

Orders in the public sector amounted to 2.24 trillion won, down 22.1 pecent from a year earlier, while those in the private sector plunged 45.6 percent over the cited period, it said.

"The amount of orders declined by more than 7 trillion won in the first two months of this year from the corresponding period of last year, which is quite a worrying situation," said an official of the association.

By Josephine Liu Yan Yee

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com