GKE Corporation has announced that its ready-mix concrete (RMC) manufacturing facility and construction material waste recycling plant located in Cenxi City, Guangxi, China have come online.
In May 2019, GKE had announced the development of Cenxi Xing Jian Readymix Co, an RMC manufacturing facility held through subsidiary Wuzhou Xing Jian Readymix Co with an intended production capacity of 400,000 cubic meters per annum.
The group also announced a 24%-owned joint investment in Cenxi Haoyi Recycling Co, a construction material waste recycling plant.
Both Cenxi Xing Jian and Cenxi Haoyi are located beside each other in Cenxi City.
In an updated filed with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on August 23, GKE reported that both facilities are fully operational. ”We hope shareholders and investors will appreciate that these new businesses take time to develop as the premises are on mountainous land with scheduled urbanisation plans in the surrounding area,” says Neo Cheow Hui, CEO and executive director of GKE.
Since opening its first RMC manufacturing facility, Wuzhou Xing Jian, in June 2016, GKE has expanded its annual RMC production capacity from 800,000 cubic meters to 1.2 million cubic meters. Wuzhou Xing Jian contributed $52.8 million to the group’s revenue of $119 million in FY2021 ended June.
“We are committed to broadening our earnings base progressively with these two strategic investments in Cenxi City,” says Neo.
Cenxi Haoyi has commenced trial production in November 2020 and is working towards the target of recycling six (6) million tonnes of construction waste materials per annum. The processed materials recycled by Cenxi Haoyi can be feedstock for RMC production and used to build roads and pathways.
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In July, Cenxi Xing Jian commenced trial production for its initial phase of 200,000 cubic meters production capacity per annum. It has recently submitted product samples to the relevant authorities for product quality grading and certification.
Under applicable Chinese regulations, RMC producers can only begin selling their RMC after they received the Construction Enterprise Qualification certificate from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China.
“These two strategic investments in Cenxi City are expected to contribute positively to the group’s financial performance in the long term,” Neo says.
Shares in GKE closed at 13.5 cents on August 20.