At the company’s annual general meeting today, Macmahon CEO Ross Carroll told shareholders revenue for the 2015 financial year would likely be $A750-850 million, down from earlier guidance of $750 million to $1 billion.

Carroll noted Macmahon was having a challenging year due to the deterioration of the market and the subdued sentiment across iron ore, coal, copper and gold.

“The outcome of the weaker commodity prices is that very few of our customers are making satisfactory financial returns,” he said.

“When our customers are battling, it is a sure sign that pressure will be placed on the service providers to the mining industry.”

Carroll said the market conditions had led to a lack of new projects globally, making competition for what new projects there were very strong.

“We can take some comfort that a lot of our work is with low-cost operators on long-term projects so in many ways, we are better placed than many of our peers,” he said.

“However, we should be under no illusion about how tough the market is at the moment.”

Macmahon recently suspended its operations at the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine in Mongolia after the operator failed to pay the company.

The contract was set to deliver around $100 million of revenue in FY15 and Macmahon remains unsure if production will restart.

Macmahon is pursuing all avenues to recover its investment, but Carroll warned that arbitration could extend past the end of FY15 and the company is currently trying to negotiate a settlement.

“We are cautiously optimistic of reaching an amicable solution,” Carroll said.

“However, should we get to the stage where we feel that negotiations have reached an impasse, we will not hesitate starting international arbitration.”

With an order book of more than $2 billion, Carroll said Macmahon remained well-placed to ride out the downturn.

Carroll said the company saw opportunities in southeast Asia, Queensland and Africa.

“The projects, mainly in west Africa, are in gold and copper and they are both surface and underground operations,” he said.

“It is fair to say that Africa is the most prospective of all geographies at present.”

Carroll said that when bidding for new work, Macmahon was applying a high level of discipline.

“The strength of our order book has enabled us to maintain our position and not compromise our margins to unsustainably low levels,” he said.

“This may be resulting in a lower win/loss ratio at present, but over the long term it will put us in a stronger position.”