Overseas plant orders won by South Korean companies hit a new high in the first half of this year on the back of growing demand from Africa, a government report showed Monday.

South Korean builders received 33.7 billion U.S. dollars of industrial plant orders during the January-June period, up 20.2 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The figure was larger than any other first-half orders received as strong demand from Africa, a rising plant-order market, helped domestic builders win great orders.

Orders from Africa surged to 5.6 billion dollars in the first half of this year from 2.2 billion dollars a year earlier.

Among the total, those from the Middle East and Africa accounted for 51.5 percent and 16.8 percent respectively.

Orders from the Mideast region more than tripled to 17.4 billion dollars in the first half, with the reading from the Americas more than doubling to 5.2 billion dollars.

Those from Asia and Europe reduced 43 percent and 99.2 percent each during the January-June period.

By facility type, orders for oil and gas processing facilities accounted for 66.5 percent of the total, with those for power and desalination plants taking up 15.4 percent.

The ministry said the plant orders would continue to grow in the second half amid the global recovery and the expanding infrastructure in emerging economies, but it cautioned there remained negative factors such as the political risk in the Mideast region.