Huge state-owned builder China State Construction Engineering Corp. (CSCEC) has teamed up with an Israeli developer to build thousands of homes.
Projects planned by CSCEC and developer Tidhar, said to be Israel’s largest private real estate group and contractor, are reported to worth around $400m (NIS1.5bn), business newspaper Globes reported.
Rated the highest-earning contractor in the world in the 2016 ENR index of global construction companies, CSCEC had a turnover of $160bn last year, and has built 90% of the towers over 300m in China, including the 530-m Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre (pictured).
"We believe that the combination of Chinese technological knowledge and power with Tidhar’s engineering, planning, and construction capabilities will be a leading force in lowering construction costs and housing prices in Israel," Tidha’s executive chairman Gil Geva said.
CSCEC is not the only Chinese firm targeting the Israeli housing market.
Faced with a chronic housing shortage, the government last year gave the green light for five Chinese construction giants, and one from Portugal, to spend the next five years building homes on Israeli soil.
CSCEC will be represented in Israel by its subsidiary, China Construction Second Engineering Bureau (CCSEB).
Under the agreement, the parties will cooperate in the construction of thousands of housing units in Israel on which construction has already begun, Globes reported, and in other projects.
As well as contracting clout, Israel is turning to China for raw manpower as well: in January this year Israel drafted a deal with China to import some 6,000 Chinese construction workers to help build homes.
Image: Completed in 2016, the Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre is just one of CSCEC’s many projects (CTBUH)
