Bloomberg reports that Jordan’s Aphrodite Trading Company has won a $240 million [285 billion Iraqi dinar] contract to build 2,500 housing units in the city of Tikrit in northern Iraq.

Jawhar Hamad, the president of Salahuddin Investment Commission, told the agency that the project will be completed within three years.

The province needs 19,800 residential units to satisfy demand, he said.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Iraq’s Minister for Housing and Construction, Mohammed Sahib al-Darraji, spoke to Gavin Jones for Iraq Business News:

The Ministry of Housing and Construction is responsible for building over 2 million houses between now and 2015, as well as several thousand kilometres of highway and several dozen schools, hospitals and various other infrastructure projects; it’s a massive task and as the Minister of Construction told me yesterday “we cannot do this by ourselves – we need international companies to get involved”.

One example of this is Danish engineering consultancy COWI, which is about to sign a contract to design and build a 500 km highway from Baghdad to the Turkish border, connecting Basra to Baghdad to Turkey, and making one of the first significant steps in reconnecting the Silk Road.

Consulting firm Mackenzie & Mackenzie was appointed last year and has started a Public Private Partnership. One of the first steps will be a privatisation programme for the state-owned assets of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Construction, with the Ministry of Construction determined to be in the lead for setting up international joint-ventures with the 9 state-owned companies they have – the first one scheduled to be sold this year.

Thi Qar [Dhi Qar] Investment Commission has granted a new investment licence to build 850-housing units in Shatra, in the north of Nassiriya city.

The project, to be implemented by an Iraqi company, will cost $150 million [180 billion Iraqi dinars].

Another housing complex with a costing $16.5 million, and a $15 million shopping mall are to be built in the same area.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

The Basra Investment Commission has approved six projects from Iraqi and Arab investors in the areas of housing, industry and tourism.

The projects include construction of a $9.7m (11.3bn IQD) ready-mix concrete plant and a $9m (10.5bn IQD) plant for producing construction thermostone (isolating cement material).

Other projects include a $81,500 (95m IQD) Nakhil tourist restaurant as well as a $944,000 (1.1bn IQD) shopping center and a steel structures plant costing $40m (46.6bn IQD).

Zahra Residential Compound is also one of the six projects, which will be constructed with $4.5m (5.3bn IQD) and will consist of 74 houses.

(Source: AKnews, Basra Investment Commission)

The head of the Basra Investment Commission (BIC) and a number of local officials inspected the Modern Basra City project, implemented by the US-based Wadi Sawa International in al-Sabkh region, near the Sports City.

“Basra’s governor, accompanied by the head of the BIC, hailed the project’s design and the ongoing work which includes the establishment of 1400 residential units, which considered the first of its kind in the province,” the BIC said in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Iyed al-Jabbouri, the regional director of the “Wadi Sawa” Company, a subsidiary of the International World Solution company, said:

“The main problem that we encountered in obtaining approvals to begin investing in the residential projects is the Iraqi Investment law, but the efforts of the officials in the province and that of the governer and the director of the investment committee helped in getting the approvals.

“This project is very important because its provides working opportunities to a large number of Iraqis who will work for four to five years, in addition to that it develops the province.

“The value of each housing unit will be different because they are different, the prices of vertical construction will begin from 55,000 dollars and end with 300 to 400 thousand dollars.“

The World Solution company is based in the US but has its regional office in Jordan, and has now opened a branch in Basra province.

(Sources: Aswat al-Iraq, BIC)

The Iraqi company ‘al-Saqr al-Jareh‘ has won a $245 million contract to build 1,857 housing units in the northern outskirts of Basra city.

Khalaf al-Badran, president of the Basra Investment Commission, said that the project is to be completed within five years.

Basra province needs 200,000 additional residential units.

(Sources: Basra Investment Commission, Bloomberg)

RW [Rotondo Weirich], through its division in United Arab Emirates, RW Middle East, has built the first modular precast concrete villa, located in Samawah City, Al Muthanna Governorate, Southern Iraq.

This 2,500 ft2 villa demonstrates the technology and benefits of fast track precast modular concrete construction versus other methods of residential building in the gulf region, such as precast panels or traditional masonry construction.

“Imagine assembling a secure, sustainable, villa in just one day, allowing for thousands to be built in half the time of traditional masonry construction. That’s exactly what we have done,” says Ahmed Halet of RW Middle East.

RW shipped their formwork from the US to Southern Iraq, and specialized supervisors temporarily moved to Samawah City to manage and train local Iraqi workers in modular precast construction. All materials and equipment used to build the villa were procured locally and the local workers gained knowledge and training which can now be transferred to their next jobs.

Developers are finding RW’s precast modular construction to be an ideal fit for building in the Middle East. By producing the modules onsite, the time and risk usually present when transporting modules from a factory to the site is removed. Once pulled from the mold, the pieces are erected into place and finishing begins. Schedules are drastically reduced, there is minimal waste, significant cost savings, and the result is a sustainable, durable, and secure product.

“Precast modular construction is the right fit for new large scale housing due to the fast paced construction, strength, and durability of the materials and technology used,” said Steve Weirich, President and CEO of RW. “Once a project has been slated for construction, one 4-bedroom villa can be produced per day per set of formwork.

The model villa is complete with interior finishes, electrical, and plumbing, and it is open for demonstration and viewing purposes. RW’s vision is to produce thousands of the modular precast villas to provide high quality, affordable housing for citizens of Southern Iraq. The team intends to expand construction activities to other areas and countries in the Middle East.

(Source: Rotondo Weirich)

A Belgian-British company has reportedly won a contract from the Ministry of Construction and Housing to build a housing complex for its members in Wasit [Wassit] province.

The company, which has not been named, has conducted field investigations for the project, which will include 240 housing units within a number of six-story residential buildings, according to AKnews.

The site covers an area of 19 dunums [5 hectares] next to the Sports City in Qut, south of the city center. The units will be allocated to employees of the ministry in the province in addition to staff of Wasit Provincial Council.

For those wishing to purchase a unit, 25 percent of the value of the unit will be paid by the employee during the construction phase and 25 percent will be paid after completion. The remaining 50 percent will be paid from the housing fund as a loan.

The company will use foreign-manufactured materials for all stages of construction, and will be the first to use insulating materials in Iraq.

The ministry is currently building three residential compounds in Wasit province. The first is in Qut city and includes 504 housing units, while the second is in the Hay district – 40km south of Qut – and includes 520 units. The implementation of the third began last month in the Al-Suwaira district – 135km north of Qut – and includes 620 housing units.

(Source: AKnews)