50 percent of sales for housing company from business abroad

CHENGDU - Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co Ltd (BNBM), China's largest new-building-materials manufacturer, aims to establish 10 overseas production bases for its burgeoning business in houses by the end of 2015, according to the company's top executive.

"During the period of the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the company's subsidiary - BNBM Homes Co Ltd - is expected to set up 10 overseas bases for the production of new-building-material houses," Liu Guiping, vice-manager of BNBM told China Daily.

Currently, BNBM Homes exports its new-building-material houses to 25 countries and regions, including the United States, Russia and New Zealand, with a total floor area of about 1 million square meters, according to the company's data.

BNBM Homes generated some 100 million yuan ($15.43 million) in sales last year, about half of which was from overseas business, Liu said.

"This year, our goal is to further expand in overseas markets and, hopefully, around 60 percent of the company's sales revenue will come from overseas business," he said.

In mid-March, BNBM signed a housing-export contract worth more than 600 million yuan with the government of Zambia.

Under the contract, BNBM Homes will design and construct 4,000 units of public housing in Zambia.

"This substantial order is a great breakthrough for BNBM in new-housing export. It means that the company is piling into the African market," said Zou Ge, an industry analyst at Changjiang Securities.

Liu said the company has just won the first round of bidding for a 30-million-yuan project for the post-earthquake reconstruction in Japan.

The company will build 250 earthquake-resistant houses in the first phase of the project, Liu said.

Cui Lijun, general manager of BNBM, said that the company also worked hard to build earthquake-proof houses in China after the 2008 Sichuan and the 2010 Qinghai earthquakes.

Founded in 2002, BNBM Homes has focused on developing houses made of new building materials and has dedicated itself to energy conservation.

"The new houses can save electricity, water and materials during construction, and can save 60 percent to 90 percent of the energy when in use," said Cui.

China has attached great importance to promoting new building materials in an effort to reduce energy consumption.

The government plans to trim energy expenses by 10 percent for most buildings and 15 percent for large public buildings during the next five years, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in May.

China Daily