The resource sector’s preferred prefabricated modular building supplier, Ark Pacific, commenced 2022 with numerous buildings for multiple clients in its design, engineer, supply and construction pipeline. The New Year also saw Ark’s production capacity increase by 100 percent, with its main factory now capable of producing 1,000 building modules per month due to enhanced automated technology.
Ark modular building systems increased in popularity throughout Oceania and Southeast Asia after they were utilised in Papua New Guinea during the country’s LNG construction phase more than a decade ago. Commencing with a 1,000 person multi-storey accommodation complex and associated support buildings in PNG’s remote highlands, there are now thousands of Ark building modules – all assembled by local workforces – to be found throughout the region.
Impressively, the company managed to grow its client base during the challenging, COVID-19 impacted business environment of 2020 and 2021. An achievement due to its reputation for after sales service, but primarily for its tough and easy-to-assemble buildings, ideal for remote operations where specialist construction skills are in short supply.
General Manager Cass Ruka, who has more than 18 years’ experience living and working in PNG, says that accommodation and administration buildings have long been the company’s ‘top sellers’ but that clients are also now sourcing more ‘technical’ and ‘specialist’ buildings from Ark.
“Our modules have been engineered to suit almost infinite building types and configurations” says Ruka. “This is why we’ve been able to design, engineer, supply and help construct an increasingly broad spectrum of customised and fit for purpose buildings, most of which have been for resource clients.” Ruka cites laboratories and specialist geology and crushing facilities as examples of the growing number of Ark building types to be found throughout the region.
A recent example of a customised building Ark designed, manufactured, and delivered for a mining client is a Minerals Laboratory Complex, comprising 11 separate labs, offices, crib room and ablution facilities. The project’s design phase took 12 months in partnership with the client, as well as laboratory equipment design specialists MARC, the result of which is a ‘gold standard’ testing facility. The modular componentry for the laboratory was manufactured in December 2021, shipped to the client in January, with construction scheduled to commence by the end of the first quarter.
Like others in the construction sector, Ruka is positive about the predicted 2022 upswing in the resource sector. “The timing is pretty well perfect for us because of the increased capacity of our main factory, which we are working to increase further throughout 2022. A compounding advantage for us when we look at the inflated freight price increases over the last couple of years, is our very low freight footprint in comparison to our competitors.”
Ruka says that clients can save up to 75 percent on their freight costs because Ark’s modular componentry is specifically engineered so that six of its flat pack units are equivalent to a single 20 foot shipping container when stacked together ready for transport. “Another way to look at this” explains Ruka “is that instead of using five, six or seven trucks to get our units to the job site, the client only needs one.”
To learn more about Ark Pacific, including its diverse range of fit for purpose buildings and advantages of its unique building systems: www.arkpacific.net