Homes of the future roll off the production line

After nine months of construction, a complex that holds precast building components, a display area, an office building, a building supplies supermarket and a hotel, is taking shape in Machakos county, south of Nairobi, Kenya.

The complex, serving as a modern building industry base, is the biggest overseas project for China Wu Yi, a Fujian-based property company and overseas construction engineering contractor, which has invested nearly $100 million.

When complete, the base will occupy 12 hectares and have a floor area of 58,300 square meters, serving as an industrial hub, manufacturing base, research and development, sales and demonstration center for new building technologies.

The main part has four production lines with equipment supplied by Ebawe Anlagetechnik, a German company. The first is an automatic wall panel production line, which produces slabs, interior wall panels and decorated cladding panels; the second is an irregular slab production line, which produces the staircases, beams and columns; the third is a hollow core slab production line and the fourth is a reinforcement processing line, which adapts welded bespoke mesh and lattice girders from coils, according to different specifications.

Ebawe is a world-leading equipment manufacturer that has led the way in research and development of building industry production lines.

The installation and commissioning work will be completed by June and production of precast components will start in July. The plant will be able to provide 500,000 to 600,000 square meters of precast components in 2018.

Construction industrialization is a new technology that is set to become a top trend in Kenya, says Lin Yihua, deputy general manager of China Wu Yi (Kenya) Precast Co Ltd. He says it will not only revolutionize the country's construction sector but also do the same for the whole of East Africa.

With precast components, a 500 sq m villa can be completed in seven days. The process can shorten the construction period by a third and reduce the total cost of a 100-meter building by 15 percent, according to Lin.

"The technology is becoming mature, which is why China is bringing it to Africa. As happens with automobile production, we will provide local people with high-quality, low cost and environmentally friendly housing products," he says.

Prefab construction involves factory-made components or units being transported and assembled on-site to form buildings.

The three-story building supplies supermarket at the new complex, with an area of 23,805 sq m, will be completed next March. It will introduce Chinese construction materials, especially quality but inexpensive products from Fujian province. They will include stone, ceramic tiles, bathroom appliances, electrical goods, hardware, lamps and lanterns, and kitchen furnishings.

"High-quality and fashionable construction materials and modern building technologies will facilitate the development of Kenya, as well as driving the regional economy and creating employment," says Lin.

panzhongming@chinadaily.com.cn