Work on M25 keeping the wheels turning at Balfour

Balfour Beatty, the construction giant which has just started work on some major disruption of the M25, admitted trading in the past six months had been a case of swings and roundabouts.

With an order book at the half year steady at £12.8 billion the company said its UK building business is holding up but is coming back strongly in the US despite tough competition in the American market.

In civil engineering Balfours said a number of ongoing major road projects, including the A3, means business is good.

It has begun its major £6.2 billion construction and maintenance contract for the M25, which includes widening the London orbital with 40 miles of new lanes.

However, the crisis on the British railways is having an effect, with work from Network Rail drying up.

"In rail, as expected, reduced volumes in some parts of the UK market have impacted the start of the year, with Germany also down on last year," it said in a statement.

Balfours has had a good recession. In its statement to the Stock Exchange today it said: "Our strong market positions, the resilience of our business model and our high-quality order book mean that we anticipate making progress in 2009."