Without a healthy backlog of projects, contractors have nothing to build upon. For Stockholm-based Skanska, that pipeline has grown much more robust in the last three months.
For the second quarter, Skanska reported 68 billion Swedish krona ($7 billion) in order bookings, up 20% from the same period in 2025. That marked a record for order intake, CEO Anders Danielsson said during an earnings call Friday. Of that new work, 39.5 billion krona was in the U.S.
“This quarter was a very good one, but we always say you can't build a trend on one quarter,” CFO Pontus Winqvist told Construction Dive after the firm’s earnings call. “Generally I would say it's a good market out there.”
He added, “Of course, it could be a little bit lumpy between the different quarters.”
The same markets that bolstered the firm’s results previously remained strong for Skanska. Data centers — which Winqvist said make up about 10% of Skanska’s backlog — and civil infrastructure construction have kept the firm busy in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Winqvist said the contractor is largely not worried about headwinds such as rising material prices and growing data center pushback.
Materials and moratoriums
After costs rose in the first quarter, largely brought on by the Iran war elevating oil prices, construction material costs dropped in June. However, the continuing conflict has already begun to bring costs back up in July.
Skanska is monitoring prices, as it does anything when preparing risk management on project bids, Winqvist told Construction Dive.
“It's important for us that when we are preparing the bids that we really try to not expose ourselves to fuel or something that could have quite a sharp impact from the Middle East crisis,” he said.
As sky-high demand for data centers helps builders fill portfolios, public pushback has finally reached the point of political action. New York became the first state to ban new permits for data center construction, with Gov. Kathy Hochul enacting a one-year moratorium on large builds via executive order.
Winqvist says the situation is one Skanska is tracking, but he was not concerned about the impact of the decision — or other states potentially following suit — on the firm's business.
“Yes, we are watching it, but we are not developing any data centers. We are doing the construction for others,” he said, adding when it came to planning and permitting, moratoriums or bans would more impact clients than builders themselves.
Any concerns, for now, were offset by unwavering demand, he said.
“And what we see right now in the potential pipeline is that there are a number of data centers still coming,” said Winqvist. “We’ll see if we win them or someone else does, but there's a strong pipeline still.”
By the numbers
Skanska reported operating profit of 2.1 billion Swedish krona for the second quarter of 2026, a roughly 17% increase from the same period a year ago. Construction continued to lead the way for the builder, with 1.8 billion in operating profit from the unit.
The firm has 297.5 billion krona in backlog, up about 11% year over year. That equated with 21 months of construction work in the pipeline, which Danielsson called “unusually high.” That’s two months higher than what was on Skanska’s books in March.
“I would say it’s a good quality in the backlog. We have been successful in positioning ourself where the market is strong and good,” Danielsson said during Friday’s call. “And that goes for pretty much all the geographies.”
Among the major Q2 wins touted by Danielsson was the firm’s appointment to master developer on the $8 billion Penn Station renovation in New York City. Skanska included about $70 million from that award in its second quarter bookings, the firm announced at the time.
