Lida Group presents modular housing tech to local developers
KUCHING: Representatives from China- based Lida Group have recently concluded a visit to Kuching where they aimed to spread awareness of modular housing technology and the group’s offered products to local developers in the Sarawak Housing Real Estate and Developer’s Association (Sheda) Kuching branch.
The visit by Lida Group was part of a follow-up visit to Sheda Kuching branch member owned companies, Tiara Realty Sdn Bhd, Total Reliability Sdn Bhd, Sim Sim Construction Sdn Bhd and Regal Lands Sdn Bhd (Regal Lands) that have previously signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with the group for the potential importation of modular housing systems to Sarawak.
According to Lida Group representative Ken Gu, the main objective of the visit was to exchange ideas with local developers on the construction of affordable houses while exploring future business collaborations with them.
He said the group, which is an ISO9001: 2000 registered enterprise, was looking forward to a promising and beneficial collaboration with local construction industry players as they believed that their products which have gained international notoriety would serve well to fulfil the needs of the industry – particularly its modular housing series.
Lida Group is one of top enterprises involved in steel structures and temporary building projects in the People’s Republic of China.
It possesses a large portfolio of fast track construction products such as their steel structure series, modular housing series, and light steel sandwich panel series.
Gu who is also the group’s sales director of its overseas department, explained that modular buildings or houses are sectional prefabricated buildings that consisted of multiple sections called modules which are manufactured off-site in factories before being transported and installed on site.
Due to this unique method of construction compared to other traditional methods, Sheda Kuching branch member and managing director of local developer Lafrowda Sdn Bhd John Yong, notes that the main benefits to modular construction would be accelerated construction times and increased project quality.
“Utilisingmodularconstruction, the construction period for a housing project could be reduced to a matter of months due to streamlined process and the reduced onsite labour needs.
This would be highly beneficial to mass housing projects.
“Quality control would also benefit as the modular components are manufactured in a controlled environment as opposed to onsite where quality can be affected by weather conditions and inconsistency in workmanship.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Sheda Kuching branch chairman Dr Christopher Ngui, suggested that the benefits of modular construction could extend outside of the housing industry and benefit the construction industry on the whole by addressing the limitations found in the Industrialised Building System (IBS).
“Modular construction can help improvise on the current limitations faced by the IBS, which is a terminology used in Malaysia to represent the concept of prefabrication that allows for construction acceleration and reduced labour costs.
“It can do so by being incorporated with IBS in order to further promote sustainability in the construction industry and with increased sustainability, construction projects will able to see reduced material wastages and decreased reliability on physical labour.
“The reduced need for labour would also be beneficial in alleviating some of the pressures of labour shortages while promoting a safe construction working environment.”
However, before this can be achieved, Ngui commented that modular construction would first have to adapt to the already established IBS approach in order to ensure its effectiveness and benefits.
Chiming into the discussion is Sheda Kuching branch member Dominic Su, who notes there are further factors to consider before the method construction can be embraced by the housing and construction industry.
“While modular housing is promising, there are still challenges of its implementation such as end-user preference for traditional construction methods, and the issue of cost versus volume dynamics.” Elaborating on the issue of cost, Yong explained that there needs to be a sufficient demand from the market in order for modular housing to be cost effective.
“However, with sufficient demand from the local housing industry, it will be viable to set up a manufacturing facility locally to produce the modular components in order to reduce costs.”
Despite these issues, it seems efforts to bring modular housing systems onto local shores have continued with zest as Su who is also the chief executive officer of Regal Lands – one of the MoU signatories with Lida Group – has guided that interested local developers are still working towards optimal solutions to the concerns raised.
“We are exploring with Lida Group to see where we can implement their system in a winwin manner.”