Canadian curtainwall fabricators should prepare for increased competition from the Chinese on large-scale projects.
Canadian curtainwall fabricators should prepare for increased competition from the Chinese on large-scale projects. There are more than 1,000 curtainwall manufacturers in China, some of which are among the largest in the world, said Arthur Chan of Advanced Glazing Systems Ltd. (AGS).
Don’t expect them to ignore the Canadian marketplace.
By comparison, there are only a handful of major curtainwall manufacturers remaining in Canada, he said.
Curtainwall is typically specified for commercial buildings. Office towers are a good example. Windowwall is less expensive and more commonly used on residential towers.
Chan said big Chinese manufacturers have been plying their trade in North America for two or three years, mainly in the U.S.
“Canada is a very small market for them because we don’t have a lot of tall buildings,” he said.
Still, he believes Canadian companies such as AGS can expect stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers, some of which produce high-quality curtainwall inexpensively, largely because of cheap labour costs.
Even after the price of shipping, Chinese curtainwall often costs less than its Canadian counterpart.
“We have to change our way of thinking because they are coming for some of the larger projects (about 300,000 square feet or more),” he said.
“They can manufacture in a hurry and do good-quality work.”
The Chinese, he added, don’t scrimp on materials either. The use of high-quality extruded aluminum for curtainwall framing is common.
“They don’t go to some back shop to get their aluminum; they use manufacturers with ISO 9000 certifications,” he said.
One of the first Chinese fabricators to work on Canadian soil is Far East Aluminium Works Canada Corp., a subsidiary of the Far East Group based in Hong Kong.
Far East has supplied curtainwall to Canadian buildings over the past few years and is currently retained to supply the curtainwall systems for two of Toronto’s largest projects — The Trump International Hotel and the Shangri-La Toronto hotel-condo.
“I think the Canadian market (for Chinese fabricators) will continue to grow,” said Francis Ko, branch manager of Far East’s Canadian operations. “A lot of new highrise buildings will go to curtainwall (systems).”
Many highrise condominium towers in Toronto and Vancouver are specified with windowwalls, but increasingly, he said, curtainwall systems will gain ground in that segment of the market.
Far East has four factories in Asia producing a total of 360 unitized curtainwall panels per day. Typical panels are about five feet by 10 feet, said Ko.
He said Canadian buildings represent about 10 per cent of the company’s business portfolio, which includes such high-profile international jobs as Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest tower.
Today, the bulk of its clients are in China, Abu Dhabi and North America.
While Chinese fabricators have access to cheap labour, giving them an advantage over Canadian competitors, Ko said that the Chinese lead is slipping somewhat because labour rates in China have risen significantly over the past five years.
AGS’s Chan sees the Chinese going mainly after larger projects, not small ones (50,000 to 100,000 square feet).
Tall towers might typically require 300,000 or more square feet of curtainwall.
Mark Lawton, building science specialist with Morrison Hershfield Ltd., said the company has been retained on a couple of projects in Vancouver using panelized curtainwall from China.
“It is my opinion that the competitiveness of the Asian suppliers is a game changer for major building projects in Canada,” he said, adding that Canadian developers have been contacting Chinese fabricators.
Lawton has visited fabrication plants in China.
The company supplies curtainwall for mega-buck projects around the world. Its expansive operations include four engineering groups, each specializing in a region in the world.
“The size of their operation is scary,” he said.
Lawton said the changing tide follows another shift: nearly all aluminum extrusions for curtainwall are now made in Asia, typically China or South Korea.
To maintain its market segment, Canadian curtainwall fabricators will have to keep a tight control on budgets and provide “excellent customer service,” pointed out Chan.
The changing market could bring other opportunities, such as partnerships with Chinese manufacturers in which Canadian companies like AGS design the curtainwall while the Chinese fabricate it, Chan said.
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