Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet (Scanian Cement Casting Ltd) was established in Malmö, Sweden, in 1887 by Rudolf Fredrik Berg and started by manufacturing concrete products.

[6] The company played an important role in building Sweden's infrastructure including its roads, power plants, offices and housing.

During the next decades, it entered South America, Africa and Asia, and in 1971 the United States market, where it today ranks among the largest in its sector.

[7] In mid-2004, Skanska decided to divest its Asian investments and sold its Indian subsidiary to the Thailand based construction firm Italian Thai Development Company.

[15] In 2011, Skanska was ranked the greenest company in the United Kingdom, despite belonging to an industry with a generally high environmental impact.

"[16][17][18][19] The Financial Times described Skanska in 2014 as aiming to be the "greenest contractor in the world," while having 57,000 employees, 100,000 suppliers and 250,000 subcontractors, who deliver more than 10,000 projects annually.

[42] Major projects in the United States include the MetLife Stadium (home to the Giants and the Jets NFL franchises), completed in 2010.

[55] Skanska USA CEO and president, Richard Kennedy, was named in the Construction Dive Awards Executive of the Year in 2019.

[56] Skanska was also recognized for its membership in the Predictive Analytics Strategic Council, which Construction Dive named its 2019 Innovator of the Year.

In 2007, the company was implicated in reports of bribery involving illegal payments to government officials relating to the project award.

[68][69] Later bribery allegations related to a pipeline for Petrobras in Brazil,[70] prompting Skanska to be barred from bidding for work for two years by the Brazilian government,[71] and to withdraw completely from operations in South America.

[73] Later, Skanska was among eight businesses who launched the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme in 2014,[74] condemned as a "PR stunt" by the GMB union, and described by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee as "an act of bad faith".

[75] In December 2017, union Unite announced it had issued high court proceedings against four former chairmen of the Consulting Association, included Skanska's former director of industrial relations, Stephen Quant, alleging breach of privacy, defamation and Data Protection Act offences.

Illegal conduct was associated with the tender for the execution of works for the construction of the D1 highway from Mengusovce to Jánovce in eastern Slovakia.

[78] On September 16, 2020, Skanska failed to secure 20 barges at and around their Pensacola Bay Bridge site in Florida ahead of the impending Hurricane Sally.