HCMC – Leading private steel maker Hoa Sen Group and Pho Dong Development Investment Joint Stock Co. late last week jointly started work on an apartment project in HCMC’s District 9 to capitalize on the increasing housing demand.The project comprises two 18-story blocks covering more than 3,600 square meters at Dien Phuc Thanh residential area to provide 210 apartments once in place after a year of construction.

The Phodong-Hoasen building project will have apartments measuring 55 to 94 square meters each. The two local companies have yet to announce prices.

The VND180-billion project will be ready late next year and include a shopping mall, restaurant, and other service facilities on the ground and first floors.

Hoa Sen Group got listed on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE) late last year. The corrugated iron and steel trader and maker owns several factories, including a 180,000 tons/year cold rolling steel plant, a 150,000 tons/year zinc-aluminum alloy plating steel plant, and a building materials factory capable of producing 165,000 tons of steel pipes and 44,000 tons of plastic pipes annually.

The company is developing a big steel factory in Phu My 1 Industrial Zone in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and will also open five stores selling construction materials in the next three to five years.

The Phodong-Hoasen Building is Hoa Sen Group’s first property project investment.

Le Phuoc Vu, general director of the group, said his group would join other property projects and saw the sector as one of the main sectors which the group will develop in the near future.(Saigon Times)