Quick! How can a 22 module 4 story building be built in China from light gauge steel, completely finished inside including furniture, put on a boat, shipped from Hong Kong across the Pacific Ocean, unloaded and transported to the job site and still come in less expensive than if it were built in America by a local modular company?
Turns out the transportation from the Chinese modular factory to the port of Hong Kong and the boat ride for each module to the US port at Oakland, CA costs less than the cost for a US trucking company to transport the units 6 miles from the US port at Oakland, CA to the jobsite at UC Berkeley.
Is the US modular industry living in a Pollyanna world? Just might be.
Related Article: Chinese Modular Homes the Answer to Problem…Really?
This new 22-unit project from local developer Panoramic Interests is the first in the nation to be constructed of prefabricated all-steel modular units made in China. Each module, which looks a little like sleekly designed shipping containers with picture windows on one end, is stacked on another like giant Legos.
What is even more interesting is factory OS, which can build just about the same type of unit and is only 25 miles from the jobsite, didn’t get the job. And people wonder why our government put tariffs on Chinese manufactured goods.
The modules are effectively ready-to-go 310-square-feet studio apartments with a bathroom, closets, a front entry area, and a main room with a kitchenette and sofa that converts to a queen-size bed. They come with flat-screen TVs and coffee makers.
If developers on the West Coast can buy quality modules for large projects from China faster and cheaper than from a US modular factory, look for the floodgates to open for modules also coming from Thailand and Japan.
And let’s not forget the East Coast where Poland will continue to expand its grip on commercial projects but also look for Germany, England and Sweden to begin shipping homes and projects our way.
And yet you can still count the number of new US modular factories opened in the last 2 years on your fingers.
Another interesting question. Are these offshore factories subjected to the same anti-modular discrimination and complicated review processes as US modular factories?
I don’t know the answer to this one but it would be interesting to learn more.
