Overseas plant orders won by South Korean firms fell 5.6% in the first quarter due to delayed orders from some Middle East countries, a government report showed Thursday.

South Korean firms received overseas plant orders worth 11.8 billion U.S. dollars during the January-March period, down 5.6% from the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The contraction came after some Middle East countries delayed their planned orders for large projects, reducing the number of orders worth over 500 million dollars won by South Korean firms to seven in the first quarter from 11 tallied in the previous year, the ministry said.

The ministry, however, forecast that plant orders won by local companies will increase in the second quarter as expected large orders for power plants and petrochemical facilities will be placed during the April-June period.

By region, orders from Asia surged 674.8% on-year to 5.9 billion dollars in the first quarter due to large-sized projects such as 2.73 billion dollars worth of offshore gas processing facilities won by Samsung Heavy Industries, 2 billion dollars worth of FPSO orders secured by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and 760 million dollars worth of thermal power plant won by Doosan Heavy Industry and Construction.

Orders from Middle East, South Korea's biggest overseas market, contracted 44.1% on-year to 3.7 billion dollars in the first quarter due to delayed orders from Saudi Arabia, but those from the African region grew 49% to 453 million dollars.

By facility type, orders for offshore plants, which account for around half of the total overseas orders, expanded 33.5% on- year to 5.8 billion dollars in the three months ended on March 31, keeping its growth trend.

Orders for industrial plants surged 200.2% on-year to 1. 8 billion dollars in the first quarter due to a 1.5-billion-dollar contract secured by Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build aluminum smelter in Saudi, but orders for oil and gas processing facilities dropped 65.3% to 1.6 billion dollars.