Domestic orders won by South Korean construction companies fell 10.5 percent in July from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, in the latest sign that the local construction sector is in a prolonged slump. Local builders bagged a combined 6.74 trillion won (US$6.1 billion) worth of new orders in July, compared witah 7.53 trillion won worth of orders in the same period last year, according to the data released by the Construction Association of Korea. Orders from the public sector dropped 23.3 percent on-year to 2.24 trillion won while those from the private sector fell 2.5 percent to 4.49 trillion won over the cited period, according to the data.