Al-Fayha Building Solutions, one of the biggest industrial contractors and service providers in south Iraq, is focusing resources on its precast concrete business in response to soaring demand, according to CEO Sarmad Al-Khudairi.

Jumeirah Beach Residences is a well-known development in the GCC that used precast concrete in its construction

Iraq is currently experiencing high demand for affordable housing and public facilities which can be built in a short space of time.

According to Al-Khudairi, since more traditional methods of building take longer, his company’s expertise in precast concrete is seeing a surge in demand.

Speaking to Construction Week, he said: “We are focusing on our main business, which is the precast solution. The boom in Iraq will not be characterised by the normal standard way of building things; it will be a faster solution, and precast is a fast solution.”

Al-Fayha, based in the southern Iraqi port of Basra, offers a range of construction services, including piling, marine steel structuring and bridge girdering.

The company recently secured a contract to build 25 schools in southern Iraq, and Al-Khudairi is confident the completion of these projects will prove the benefits of using precast concrete over traditional methods.

“We have now the opportunity to give the full solution by design, fabrication and implementation, and I think the 25 school projects will open the eyes of people - that it is better to do it this way, and faster,” he said.

“We are also now in a careful, indepth study to solve the housing issue in Iraq by giving a full solution with precast,” revealed Al-Khudairi.

He went on to explain the advantages gained by building with precast concrete. “With precast you can manage, control and produce a controlled environment in your own shop. You can manage everything, employ people, use all the resources, and when you ship it, you do not need to do more work on-site.

“Iraq is very big, and has very remote areas. It is very hard now to find qualified resources to be on 25 sites at the same time.

"But if you focus on providing a full solution for 25 sites in your own factory and then ship it to the site, this is where you have the advantage.

“Iraq’s roads are old, the infrastructure is old, the power is limited etc., so to run 25 sites with full staff is not easy. It is better to do in one location and then send it for erection,” said Al-Khudairi.

While Al-Fayha is now seeing an upsurge in demand as contractors realise the benefits of the precast solution, it has taken some time for the industry in Iraq to appreciate its advantages relative to more traditional building methods.

“It has been difficult to convince people of the benefits of precast,” said Al-Khudairi. “It took us maybe 20 years to educate people to accept the precast solution.

“Before [the boom], maybe each company would build two houses a year. Now each company is bidding for 400 to 500 houses per year, they cannot [satisfy the demand using traditional building methods]. This is our selling point,” he said.

Among some of the more well-known developments in the GCC which have used a precast concrete solution are Dubai Mall and Jumeirah Beach Residences.