A housing materials plant worth US$ 98.7m is set to be constructed in Kenya by a Chinese firm- China Wu Yi and will be completed in June next year.
The new plant will be developed in Athi River and will manufacture precast materials that are expected to be sold to other construction firms in the region.
Chairman of the company, Mr. Qiu Liangxin confirmed the good news and said that the mega project is anticipated to create a modern building industry base especially for research, manufacture, sale and demonstration of pre-cast elements in Kenya.
“The development and emergence of prefabricated buildings is significant to the transformation of the construction industry as a whole with advanced guarantee on construction quality and safety,” Mr Liangxin said.
He further pointed out that they have been behind various projects in the region and this will be their foremost building materials producer established overseas and that is why they are very eager to have it commence.
The new housing material plant will sit on a 30 acre piece of land in Athi River, off Mombasa Road and will constitute of a pre-cast element plant, a warehouse, display area and a construction material supermarket which will pioneer different materials from China, efficiently making it a one-stop shop for building materials in the country. The supermarket is expected to stock stones, ceramic tiles, bathroom appliances, construction electrical fittings, lamps and kitchen furniture among other things.
On the other hand, pre-casts will consist of solid wall panels, hollow core slabs, sandwich wall panels, lift shafts, facade panels, staircases and foundation piles.
The Chinese firm which is a multinational company is constructing the factory through its locally incorporated subsidiary China Wu Yi Precast (Kenya) Company Limited.
It has further partnered with two German technology services providers namely, Ebawe Anlagetechnik to assist in the supply of equipment for the concrete pre-casts production and Nemetschek to provide the software for the design of the housing parts.
