CMS Modular wins contract to supply roofing materials

BY JACK WONG in Kuching

CMS Modular Housing Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of conglomerate Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMSB), has won a five-year exclusive contract to supply roofing materials to state-owned Daya Perumahan Sdn Bhd for the construction of low-cost houses in Sarawak. 

Daya Perumahan is a unit of newly set-up Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Sarawak. 

An agreement to supply the CMS Insul roof system for the 2003-2008 period was signed in Kuching yesterday by CMSB chief executive officer David William Berry and Daya Perumahan CEO Dr Abang Azhari Hadari. 

David William Berry (left) exchanging contract documents with Dr Abang Azhari Hadari. Looking on are Datuk Michael Manyin (centre), Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib (second from left) and Sarawak Assistant Housing Minister Dr Abang Abdul Rauf Zain.

The corporation plans to build 10,750 low-costs houses between 2003 and 2006. 

CMSB deputy chairman Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib said the CMS Insul roof panel was the only product of its kind manufactured in Malaysia using expanded polystyrene block moulding and bonded to metal sheets. 

“The product, with its excellent insulation properties, makes homes cooler and with high strength,” he added. 

Bekir said the CMS Insul roofing system had been installed in 1,098 units of low-cost houses in Bandar Semariang in Kuching. The entire installation work took only 21 weeks. 

The CMS Modular Housing plant in Muara Tebas has an annual production capacity of 500,000 sq m of these roofing panels. 

Sarawak Housing Minister Datuk Michael Manyin, who witnessed the agreement signing, said the state had identified the sites for 10,755 low-cost housing units to be funded by the federal government. 

He said the use of CMS Insul roofing panels for all low-cost housing projects would help save costs as Daya Perumahan would not have to deploy supervisors to inspect the quality of the materials. 

Manyin said the government was looking into the supply of standardised door and window frames for low-cost units from a single supplier.