GS Engineering and Construction Corp. has became the sole company to sign a $500 million contact with Singapore Ministry of Health to build three additional hospital wards in the outskirts of Jurong, Singapore.

The order is the company’s second and largest project in Singapore, following its construction project for Fusionopolis, a research and development complex, in 2011. The country’s leading construction company said that the expected construction period is 32 months.

Slated to open in early 2015, Jurong Community Hospital will have a ward complex consisting of three buildings, 16-storied in the highest. The hospital will be built on the extension of a larger hospital complex called Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, scheduled to be completed in 2014.

The large-scale hospital construction is for a medical complex that can hold 986 beds in Jurong. The NTG will be equipped with 700 beds, and the Jurong Community Hospital with 286 beds. 

GS E&C Corp. had won four metro construction contracts, two orders each in 2009 and in 2011, worth $712 million in total. Additionally, the conglomerate is currently engaged in the Fusionopolis project, a $288 million deal.

The company has received consecutive orders from the Singaporean government which currently has an “AAA” rating from Standard and Poor’s.

“We won orders from overseas and nationally based on our experience accumulated while carrying out related projects here such as the construction of Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital and Eulji University Eulji Medical Center,” GS E&C executive director of construction Sohn In-seok said.

Sohn also said that the current overseas construction operations including the Fusionopolis project will provide an opportunity to show the company’s construction skills and competitive strength.

Over the past three years, Korean construction conglomerates had revolved around building energy plants. The operations, however, have become diversified to more profitable sectors, covering overseas construction of roads, railroads, office complexes and residential complexes, according to experts.

Fierce competition in construction bids for desalination plants, energy plants and petrochemistry facilities has dropped prices, which caused this trend, experts said.

The overseas construction operations of Korean construction conglomerates are thriving especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Hospital construction orders that GS E&C won in Singapore are in keeping with this trend.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)