LSK House Technology Co Ltd, a leading Chinese manufacturer of steel houses, said it had signed a joint-venture agreement with a US building company to construct a factory in Miami to make light steel-framed housing.

The Chinese group, based in Langfang, Hebei province, said it will invest $60 million in the factory and control 90 percent of the equity in the joint venture. LSK said it will send semifinished housing components to the joint venture in Miami for further processing.

Partner JMC Lopez, the US construction company, will hold the remaining shares in the joint venture.

Construction of the factory will start in November. After completion, it will have a capacity to manufacture 1 million square meters of steel houses annually and the units will be sent to customers in Chile for final assembly.

LSK House said the agreement was signed during the 10th China-LAC business summit held in Tangshan during the weekend.

Aside from Chile, the joint venture will also sell its houses to other LAC (Latin American and Caribbean) countries.

"LAC countries are a great market for steel-framed houses, which are lighter, easier to build, and more importantly, have good anti-seismic properties," said Shao Kun, president of Langfang Hualu Tianyu Group, which owns LSK House.

LSK House General Manager Shao Jie said construction of steel-framed houses was about 50 percent faster than traditional methods of construction.

LSK House claims its steel-framed houses can survive major earthquakes that exceed magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale.

"That's the main reason why the steel houses are welcomed in Chile," said Shao, who added that more than 2,000 LSK-made houses had been built there. "There are another 2,000 units to go and in the future the market will be huge."

The CEO of the new factory, Gustavo Lopez, said that the potential for sales was not only in the LAC region, but also throughout the Americas.

Gustavo said China had high-quality steel, while the US had a favorable geographical position and tax policies in place when it came to trading within the Americas.

The CEO said LSK House's custom-made houses would be popular with less affluent customers and the middle classes in those countries, because its house prices were lower than traditional housing.