Daewoo Engineering & Construction's office building in Seoul (Daewoo E&C) Daewoo Engineering & Construction said Tuesday its second-quarter operating profit nearly tripled from a year earlier, as a lower cost ratio and stronger building-segment margins lifted profit.The builder posted operating profit of 232.3 billion won ($163 million) in the April-June period, up 182.6 percent on-year, while net profit swung up to 167.2 billion won from a loss in the same quarter last year. Revenue fell 10.1 percent to 2.04 trillion won.For the first half, cumulative revenue came to 3.99 trillion won, down 8.2 percent on-year, while operating profit rose 109 percent to 487.9 billion won. Net profit jumped to 363 billion won from 15 billion won a year earlier.First-half revenue broke down into 2.67 trillion won from housing and building construction, 743.3 billion won from civil engineering, 511.5 billion won from plant construction and 74.5 billion won from other businesses."Revenue eased slightly as fewer project sites were active, but a stabilizing cost ratio and stronger building-segment profitability pushed operating profit sharply higher," a Daewoo E&C official said. "The operating margin more than doubled, from 5.4 percent to 12.2 percent, marking a substantial improvement in profitability."New orders for the first half rose 22.4 percent on-year to 7.13 trillion won, led by domestic building projects, while the order backlog stood at 53.40 trillion won, equivalent to about 6.6 times the company's annual revenue. The company said it would leverage its strength in nuclear power and liquefied natural gas to expand at home and abroad, diversifying into higher-value segments such as overseas urban development, data centers and domestic redevelopment."With large-scale LNG project wins in Papua New Guinea and Mozambique coming into view, we raised our new order target," the company official said, adding that the company lifted its annual new order guidance to 27 trillion won from the 18 trillion won set earlier this year.