Sweden-based developer and builder Skanska acknowledged economic uncertainties may impact its outlook, but company leadership remained bullish on the overall environment in a first quarter earnings call May 7.
In an investor call, CEO Anders Danielsson shared that the firm had reduced its outlook for U.S. construction — a major driver of the company’s revenue — from strong to stable.
“We still see a pipeline, but we can also see that it takes a little bit longer time for our customers to take the decision to invest and start a project. But it’s stable,” Danielsson said of U.S. commercial construction. On the other hand, Danielsson called the civil sector in the States “encouraging,” largely due to continued federal investments in infrastructure. The 12-month outlook for civil work in the U.S. remains strong.
“We can see a very healthy [civil] pipeline, we don’t see any decrease in activities here,” he said.
Nonetheless, economic uncertainty has impacted the outlook, Danielsson said, reinforcing that he thinks “it’s not a specific segment or specific clients, it’s more that they feel some uncertainties in the market.” Additionally, he acknowledged that tariffs have contributed to that uncertainty in the U.S., but said the fact that the international firm runs businesses locally in all its markets mitigates those effects.
Some of those question marks for owners thinking about starting projects arise from costs brought on by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which fluctuated in the period reported by Skanska.
On other earnings calls this month, construction CEOs including Jim Breuer, chief of Fluor, and Troy Rudd, AECOM’s lead, showed optimism in the face of tariff uncertainty, claiming only isolated delays in projects. Nonetheless, both firms said they are not experiencing a slowdown and touted healthy backlogs.
By the numbers
Skanska reported about 1.1 billion Swedish crowns ($110.4 million) in operating income for the three month period ending in March 2025, a 118% increase compared to the operating income from the same period a year ago.
Building buoyed the company’s revenue, as its construction unit generated nearly 1.2 billion crowns in profit in Q1. The firm’s order backlog remains historically high at 263.6 billion crowns for all geographies, with about 23 months of construction work alone booked in the U.S.
Skanska CFO Jonas Rickberg, who took over as financial chief for Skanska in January, touted construction performance as “overall very strong.”
Clarification: This story has been updated with the company's former outlook for U.S. construction.
