Samsung builds world's second tallest building Merdeka 118, surpassing Shanghai Tower

Many people don’t know that in addition to leading the technology industry, Samsung also has super strength in fields such as construction. According to Tech QRP, Samsung C&T, a subsidiary of Samsung Group, recently announced that the Merdeka 118 building, the world's second tallest building located in the center of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has been completed. The building is 679 meters high and was officially opened on January 10.

With this achievement, Samsung C&T has now built the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai (completed in 2009, 828m high) and the second tallest building. It is reported that the previous second tallest building in the world was the Shanghai Tower.

Merdeka 118 is a large-scale complex with 118 floors above ground and 5 floors underground, with a total area of 673,862 square meters. The building houses offices, a luxury hotel and a shopping mall. Notably, it features an observation deck on the top floor offering panoramic views of the city and is expected to become a world-famous attraction.

The construction of Merdeka 118 used a number of complex technologies, including a 160-meter spire and high-pressure concrete pumping. Samsung C&T installed the spire at a height of 500 meters using a "jacking" method.

Instead of using a tower crane, it used hydraulic jacks to jack it up. The project also applies high-pressure pumping technology to transport high-strength concrete to high altitudes and uses GPS for real-time measurements. The total length of steel used in the building is approximately 40,000 kilometers, enough to circle the earth.

Samsung C&T has many successful examples of high-rise building projects in Malaysia, including the Petronas Twin Towers, completed in 1998, which was 452m high and was the previous tallest building in Malaysia.