Asia by a long stretch is forecasted to consume more concrete than US/Canada, Korea is 5th world's largest producer of concrete, KCI consults for projects in many Countries. It looks like this KCI will be a major relationship and breakthrough.
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DETAILSEden Innovations Ltd (ASX: EDE) (“Eden”) is pleased to announce that the first trials of EdenCrete® in Korea, to be undertaken by the Korean Government testing authority, are planned to commence in the next few weeks, as a necessary step towards approval for its use in Korea.
As previously announced (see Eden Announcement ASX: EDE 12 June 2017), a preliminary, non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) between Eden and Korea Consultants International Co., Ltd. (“KCI”), a Seoul-based engineering consulting firm, was executed in June 2017, pursuant to which these trials are an initial step in a joint review by Eden and KCI of the feasibility of KCI being appointed as the sole distributor in the Republic of Korea (“Korea”) for EdenCrete®.
Additionally, trials by the Korean Government owned corporation that constructs, maintains and operates an expressway network in Korea on behalf of both the Government and Public Private Partnerships, have been discussed and are anticipated will be undertaken after and subject to the satisfactory completion of these first trials.
Korea is a major producer and consumer of cement and concrete and in 2015 was ranked as having the fifth largest cement production capacity in the world, and reported as consuming 152 million m3 of ready- mix concrete. Pre-cast concrete is also widely used for the construction of, amongst other things, multi-storey car parks, retaining walls, transportation and traffic-related products1.
Korea Consultants International Co., Ltd. (www.kcieng.com)
KCI is a Seoul based, innovative, integrated engineering consultancy company that approached Eden, and which provides planning, design, supervision, project management and construction management services for a broad range of infrastructure and construction projects, including for roads, bridges, railways, ports, airports, water supply and sewerage projects. It has 9 overseas offices and has participated in over 140 significant engineering projects in 23 other countries, spread across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Oceania, with 123 of these projects having been in 13 Asian/ Pacific countries. The projects it has undertaken include a number of major infrastructure projects that were funded through international aid programmes.
Strategic Development in EdenCrete® Global Marketing Strategy
Whilst the execution of the MOU with KCI and these initial trials in Korea are only preliminary steps, they nevertheless represent a significant strategic advance into Asia for Eden, towards realizing its longer-term goal of marketing EdenCrete® around the world, and achieving its widespread use in the global infrastructure and construction sectors.
The relevance and potential size of the Asian/ Pacific market was detailed in a 2015 report on the potential global spending on transport infrastructure around the world between 2015 and 2025, published by PricewaterhouseCoopers2, in which the cumulative global expenditure in trillions of dollars, by regions, was estimated (see Figure 1 below).
