Saturday, September 12, 2009

SIAM CEMENT UNIT IN JVS FOR MODULAR HOME TECHNOLOGY

       SCG Building Materials has formed two joint ventures with a Japanese partner to introduce a new home-building technology to the Thai market.

       The joint ventures with Sekisui Chemical aim to generate annual revenue of Bt1 billion by 2011.
       President Pichit Maipoom said Sekisui-SCG Industry would be responsible for making housing components using modular-home technology, while SCG-Sekisui Sales would take care of sales and installation.
       Sekisui-SCG has registered capital of Bt200 million, in which SCG Building Materials holds a 49-per-cent stake, while the remainder is acquired by the Japanese firm.
       For SCG-Sekisui Sales, SCG Building Materials holds a 51 per-cent stake and Sekisui holds 49 per cent.
       A factory in Saraburi will produce house components and assemble them into modules for installation at clients' location.
       The annual capacity is 220 units of per year.
       "We expect to sell 100 units by the end of next year," Pichit said, adding that the partner would transfer its technology to SCG Building Materials, which will supply more than 80 per cent of the components of the homes.
       Teiji Koge, president of Sekisui Housing, a unit of Sekisui Chemical, said Thailand was the first foreign market for its products.
       Sekisui was established in 1947 as a plastics company. The conglomerate now has several businesses, namely high performance plastics, urban infrastructure and environmental products as well as the housing business.
       The environmental products and housing business is now the biggest, accounting for 45 per cent of total revenue last year (ended March 2009) or roughly Bt140 billion. It constructs about 20,000 housing units per year in Japan, where 80 per cent of house components are produced in the factory and assembled into modules ready to be installed on site.
       The installing process takes only one or two days.
       Wachirachai Koonamwattana, executive manager of the Modular Home Technology Project, said the cost of a modular home was roughly Bt25,000 per square metre, depending on the type and quality of building material.
       The minimum home size is 100 square metres. So these homes are in the premium segment.
       The strength of modular homes are that they are energy efficient and are more economical than other houses over a 30-year cycle.

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