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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (December 21):
Question:
Regarding the use of prefabricated building components in public housing construction projects, will the Government inform this Council of the following since January 2000:
(a) the value and quantity of prefabricated building components used each year by public housing contractors and, among them, the respective percentages of components which were prefabricated locally and imported, together with a breakdown of imported components by place of manufacture; and
(b) the annual number of workers, broken down by job types, who would otherwise be involved in in-situ construction processes at construction sites had such construction processes not been replaced by such imported components?
Reply:
Madam President,
My reply to the two-part question is as follows:
(a) The Housing Authority has been using prefabricated building components since mid-1980's to improve building quality, promote construction efficiency and minimise the adverse environmental impacts of construction works on the neighbourhood. Apart from a limited amount of precast components manufactured within construction sites upon the Housing Authority's request for reasons of quality control and structural safety, there is practically no local manufacturers producing prefabricated building components in recent years. The vast majority of prefabricated components, including external walls, staircases and prefabricated floor slabs, are manufactured in the Mainland. The annual total value of the prefabricated components used by the Housing authority since 2000 is estimated as follows:
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
$850M $400M $300M $280M $200M
(b) With the use of prefabricated building components for public housing blocks, the demand for some construction trades including carpenters (formwork), steel fixers, concretors, aluminium window installers and external wall decorators, has somewhat lessened. On the other hand, trades such as logistics management personnel, truck drivers, quality controllers, plant operators and installers are in increasing demand. We have not made any detailed comparison of the demands for various jobs under different building modes, and hence the requisite statistical data is not available.
Ends/Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:35
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