Chinese firm finds success building modern prefab rooms for UK

Second, less time spent on site for a project also cuts costs because the project needs construction equipment for a shorter period of time.

And finally, it means a project can start generating revenue earlier. For a 200-room hotel, traditional construction methods take 12 months, but this can be cut to 10 months with modular building, Crane says.

The expansion of CIMC MBS coincides with a large wave of Chinese investment in UK infrastructure. Crane says these investments are providing the company with great business opportunities.

These infrastructure projects include Beijing Construction Engineering Group's investment and participation in the 800 million pound ($1.2 billion) Manchester Airport City and the 1-billion-pound Asian Business Park in London.

Crane says his colleagues in China are already having talks with Chinese groups including BCEG and ABP, and he says that CIMC MBS' understanding of the Chinese and UK markets puts it in a good position to negotiate such potential partnerships.

CIMC MBS also has a subsidiary in Perth, Australia, with an operating model similar to that in the UK.

In both places, CIMC MBS has recruited a large number of local employees with lots of expertise in construction. An example is Crane himself, who previously worked extensively in the hotel sector as a design manager for a building contractor.

"I used all my experiences in building hotels in the traditional way to help clients understand the advantage of the modular construction system. I understand what risks a contractor would be worried about, and made sure our systems would solve all those problems, so the package we propose to clients leaves them little to be nervous about," he says.

In addition to cost advantages, modular construction also provides certainty, quality and reduces risks. Crane says the two largest risks in construction are how to get a project off the ground and keeping it watertight during construction. Modular units, transported in shipping containers, are guaranteed to be watertight.

Modular building has been popular in the United States since the 1950s. In the UK it has been used since the 1960s but limited in scale and quality.

Since the late 1980s and 1990s, bathrooms have become popular as modular units because they are often the most difficult to construct, with their pipes, tiles and concrete finishing. CIMC MBS has extended the hotel room model to include the whole bedroom.

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