OCR

1955 Construction During 1955 Utah Construction Company, directly or through joint venture and subsidiary companies, continued to perform a wide range of construction work in the United States and abroad. Since mid-1953 Utah's backlog of uncompleted work on hand steadily declined until the end of the first quarter of 1955. Because of this trend, we began the year 1955 with a lower volume of uncompleted work on hand than the company had experienced for some time. As a result, construction volume in the first nine months of the fiscal year was relatively low. While volume increased rapidly in the last quarter, construction income did not increase commensurately because of the heavy expenses ordinarily experienced in getting new work under way. As a result of these factors, construction income declined below the levels of the preceding year. This was also true in the case of our construction affiliates operating in the United States. These companies were entirely concerned with residential construction and reported substantial profits in 1954. The large projects on which they were working were completed during that year. Their profits on new work was very small in 1955. Dividends paid in 1955 exceeded earnings for that year, so that these companies caused us to report a decrease in our share of the undistributed profits of subsidiary and affiliated companies. The declining trend in our backlog of work was reversed at the end of the first quarter of 1955 and thereafter the Company enjoyed unusual success in obtaining new work. The Company ended the year with the highest backlog of uncompleted construction work in its history. Foreign Construction Activities During 1955 Utah directly or through wholly-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures was active in Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru Guam, Okinawa, Korea, Australia, Tasmania and France. Among the more active foreign subsidiaries were: Utah Co. of the Americas - a western trade corporation, was engaged in residential and office building construction in Canada, highway construction in Colombia, and construction work for Marcona Mining Company in Peru.