Broad Homes opens overseas site with production base in Suriname

Prefabricated building manufacturer Broad Homes Industrial International completed its first overseas foray on Monday by setting up an industrial site in the Republic of Suriname, on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America.

The move is the first step in its busy international schedule for this year as it seeks to tap into the growing demand for housing in emerging markets.

The Hunan-based group plans to open another production base in Nigeria later this year while construction work will start on two factories in the Middle East and Brazil before the year ends.

Broad Homes said that the production plant in Suriname's capital city Paramaribo represents an important milestone in its plans to consolidate in the international property market.

Jiang Jie, general manager of Broad Homes, said: "The Suriname plant will allow the company to participate in the development of the construction market in South America and will promote industrialization in the region."

The Paramaribo precast concrete plant, equipped with two production lines, will have an annual output capacity of 200,000 cubic meters. The company did not unveil any financial details of the project.

The plans to set up a production base in Suriname were initially discussed in 2012, during the visit of an official delegation from Suriname to China. The two countries signed an agreement on infrastructure construction that included a plan to develop 18,000 homes over the years to address Suriname's population migration issues and housing shortage.

During that time, President Xi Jinping also encouraged local enterprises to invest in the Caribbean country. In 2012, the Chinese Exim Bank approved a $50 million loan to finance the construction of government houses in Suriname to alleviate the country's housing shortage problem.

Although the former Dutch territory, previously known as Dutch Guiana, has only a population of half a million people, it faces a serious housing deficit and an increasing flow of immigrants.

Carlby Xie, head of research on China at real estate consulting firm Colliers International, said: "The number of overseas Chinese living in the country accounts for approximately 2 percent of the total national population, which is apparently an important reason for the inauguration of this plant."