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Overseas gambit pays off for Jingye

By Si Tingting (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-15 09:55

A view of the construction site of the Waterworld of the Universal Studios Singapore, being built by China Jingye. The company has been present in the Singapore market for nearly 12 years and is now a major player in the construction market. [Courtesy of China Jingye]

China Jingye Engineering Corp Ltd, or the Central Research Institute of Building and Construction Co Ltd's gamble of betting big on overseas projects for growth seems to have paid off, as it emerged as one of the few firms unscathed by the global economic crisis.

The company, a subsidiary of construction conglomerate China Metallurgical Corporation Group, said its 2008 business revenues rose 37.5 percent from a year earlier to 3.8 billion yuan ($556.11 million).

"Many of our peers suffered big losses last year, but China Jingye was able to withstand this and maintain the growth momentum well into this year also," said Li Peixun, president of China Jingye.

The key reason for China Jingye's sustained and rapid growth is its persistence in tapping the overseas markets, he said.

The company recently won a plum 3.05-billion-yuan contract to build the highly anticipated Universal Studios theme park at Sentosa Island, in Singapore.

China Jingye has been present in the Singapore market for nearly 12 years and is now a major player in the construction market there along with Japanese and South Korean contractors.

"Singapore is an important market for us, as the Singaporean government has recently unveiled a slew of construction projects," said a company official who preferred not to be named.

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In addition to Singapore, the company has also done overseas projects in Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and some Middle Eastern countries, Li said.

China Jingye has increasingly been able to successfully compete for high-value contracts due to the experience gained from back home.

The company was behind the three most famous and recent landmark structures that mark the Beijing skyline, such as the Bird's Nest stadium, the new China Central Television headquarters and the new opera house.

"The Universal Studios project has dispelled the notion that most of the work by Chinese construction firms is second rate," said the anonymous official.

Despite the company's access to cheaper labor and resources in China, it has been able to make a mark abroad by showcasing its ability to deliver projects on time and within budget.

"With the building materials we developed, we helped to save dozens of millions of dollars for the Universal Studios project," the official said.

China Jingye is also working with renowned theme park ride manufacturers to install some first-ever coasters, such as the world's tallest pair of dueling coasters at the park.

"These are precious experiences for us to develop China's world-class theme parks in the future," he said.