Fluor Earnings Rise 19% Over '90 3rd Quarter : Construction: Irvine corporation's revenues drop to $1.6 billion, down from $1.8 billion last year. But the firm racked up its largest quarter for new contracts since 1981.

Fluor Earnings Rise 19% Over ’90 3rd Quarter : Construction: Irvine corporation’s revenues drop to $1.6 billion, down from $1.8 billion last year. But the firm racked up its largest quarter for new contracts since 1981.

By SONNI EFRON

Sept. 6, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

IRVINE —

Profits from engineering and construction contracts helped push Fluor Corp.’s third-quarter earnings to $47.5 million, up 19% over the same period last year, the company said Thursday.

Revenues for the quarter ended July 31 dropped to $1.6 billion, down from $1.8 billion last year, the company said. However, earnings rose to 58 cents per share; they were 49 cents per share in the 1990 third quarter.

The company won new engineering and construction contracts worth $2.7 billion during the third quarter, up 32% over last year, which was the largest quarter for new contracts since 1981, Fluor spokeswoman Deborah Land said. With the new contracts, the company’s backlog of work grew 16%, to $11.1 billion.

Many of the deals were hydrocarbon contracts, including a $220-million contract to design and build a refinery in Venezuela and a $177-million contract with Valero Energy Corp. to build a plant in Texas to produce an octane additive for cleaner-burning gasoline, Land said.

Fluor also won $400 million in new contracts with Saudi Aramco to manage expansion and revamping of oil production facilities in northern Saudi Arabia. It expects an additional $700 million in Aramco work for its fourth quarter.

Though the earnings were closely in line with analysts’ predictions, Fluor stock rose 25 cents on the news, to close Thursday at $44.75.

“We think everything’s on track, and there were few surprises in the quarter,” said analyst Mark D. Altman of PaineWebber Inc. in New York. “The problem area continues to be the lead business, where they probably lost a few million. But that’s primarily due to low lead prices, and we think they have taken steps on costs to deal with that.”

Fluor said its wholly owned lead company, Doe Run Co. of St. Louis, has suffered from lead price fluctuations because of a national oversupply of the metal. Lead dropped from 38 cents a pound in October to about 24 cents a pound last month.

However, Doe Run’s coal company, A.T. Massey, posted slightly higher third-quarter profits because of lower operating costs, the company said.