Toyo Construction Co., the Tokyo-based port builder, said that work following the March 11 tsunami may surpass the ¥60 billion it earned after the 1995 Kobe quake as local governments bolster sea defenses.

"There is going to be a rush to increase safety and security around the country," Executive Officer Nobuyuki Kawase said in an interview in Tokyo Thursday. "People are increasingly recognizing how important concrete is for protection."

Sea-defense work and reconstruction in areas directly hit by the March tsunami may help Toyo boost civil-engineering orders by 10 percent annually through as long as March 2016, Kawase said. That may help the company avoid a fourth straight decline in annual sales after the government cut public-works spending in a bid to reduce its budget deficit.

Toyo, which helped rebuild Kobe port following the 1995 quake, has surged 85 percent since March 10 in Tokyo trading, compared with a 12 percent drop for the Topix Index. It was unchanged at ¥89 at 9:06 a.m. Friday.

Toyo posted ¥122 billion of sales in the year that ended on March 31, compared with ¥270 billion in the year ended on March 31, 2001. The company, which gets about half of its orders from civil engineering, expects revenue to decline to ¥115 billion this fiscal year, excluding disaster work.

The March earthquake and tsunami caused about ¥480 billion in damage to ports and seawalls, according to the transport ministry.