CWK's Country Director Tai Jeong and KWCA's Chair Chan Kyu Park after signing MOU.

KWCA and CWK have signed the 2nd extension of MOU for the cooperation in the implementation of 5 Star Construction Quality Certification program, a training and inspection program for ensuring quality construction in Korea on January 28, 2012. However, this occasion marks a new beginning for 5-Star program for both KWCA and CWK rather than just an extension.

Two organizations, having worked together over the last two years conducting joint inspections of 43 projects for 5 Star Certification and holding numerous QA meetings for developing Inspection Check List and QA workshops for training, realized that there is a strong need for more training and creation of dedicated position for QA within KWCA to improve the effectiveness of QA program.

In order to implement the perceived changes, CWK has begun to provide more training and technical support for KWCA members particularly in their project planning stages for proper preparation of construction documents, and KWCA, on their part, has created a position dedicated for 5 Star Quality Assurance program with extra contributions from its members, demonstrating their commitment to QA. Joseph Choi, a former consultant for CWK, has been named as the director for QA.

After the Green Building Seminar, FPAC & Canada Wood held a networking dinner with over 60 KWCA member companies, industry leaders and media at COEX Intercontinental Hotel on January 28, 2012. This annual event is hosted by FPAC in collaboration with CWK. Tai JEONG of CWK gave a brief introduction of what we have achieved since 2006 and what we are doing in the near future for the growth of wood frame housing market. Hosted Canadian speaker, Ken Klassen, international training team of CMHC delivered a short presentation on current status of Canada’s advanced building systems. Just before the dinner had started, official MOU signing was concluded on QA 5-Star program between Canada Wood and KWCA.

‘2012 SEOUL BUILD+DECO FAIR’ was held at COEX, Seoul from January 28 to February 1, 2012. CWK organized and had a technical seminar on ‘Green Low-energy Housing, Wood Frame House’ in cooperation with FPAC, CMHC, Korea Forest Service, Korea Wood Construction Association (KWCA) and media. A total of 200 industry professionals, e.g. architects, designers, builders and developers, participated in the seminar. Four guest speakers including Oliver Drerup of CMHC delivered presentations focused on “Green building, low-energy housing technology with wood”. Jae Seung SONG, Chair of Wood University Centre gave a presentation on ‘How to design Wood Frame housing economically and eco-friendly; Kyu Cheol CHOI, director of technical committee of KWCA on ‘Introduction to QA 5-Star program’; Oliver Drerup, international training team of CMHC on ‘Equilibrium and Super-E house technology’, and Jeong Man CHOI, chairman of Passive House Institute Korea on ‘Low-energy building technology, Passive House’. Green & Low-energy building technology is one of the biggest issues the Korean building industries face. However, the technology to meet the requirements of low-energy housing is far behind compared to the one in Canada. “This has been my second time to take the technical seminar organized by Canada Wood and KWCA since my company became a member of KWCA in 2011. It is not easy to come to Seoul from Jeju Island where I am currently doing my wood frame construction business but I know it is difficult to find these kinds of wood frame construction design and build technical seminars in Korea” Mr. Oh, president of Daehan E&C pointed out the importance of knowledge transfer to building industries.

Owing to the progressive increase in wood housing starts and gaining popularity of SPF in structural use, Canadian SPF exports to South Korea in the first eleven months of 2011 remarkably increased 30.21% to 114,373 MFBM compared with the same period in 2010.

Table: Canadian SPF Exports to South Korea (Source: Statistics Canada Computer Data)

Korean Housing Starts Summary and Market Condition:

Korea’s housing starts in the first eleven months of 2011 considerably increased 21.1% to 89,853 buildings from a year earlier 74,226 buildings owing to the continuous tax benefits to real estate investors and widened financial support for local builders, which are being extended by the Korean government as a way of shoring up the sluggish housing market.

Korean Wood Building Permits and Starts Summary:

The number of wood building permits and starts for the first eleven months in 2011 also increased 5.0% and 6.7% to 10,523 buildings and 9,388 buildings respectively compared with the same period in 2010.

Source: Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (as a percent compared to previous year same month and period)