Samsung C&T Corp., a major South Korean general trading firm and builder, said Thursday it has completed a 118-story skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, the second-tallest building in the world, Yonhap News Agency reports.
An opening ceremony was held Wednesday for Merdeka 118, a 679-meter-high complex building in the central part of the Malaysian capital, said Samsung C&T, the trading, construction, fashion and resort arm of Samsung Group, South Korea's top conglomerate.
It is the world's second-highest building and structure after the Burj Khalifa at 828 meters in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, which Samsung completed in 2009.
Merdeka 118, with a total floor space of some 673,900 square meters, is a multipurpose building that houses offices, a high-end hotel and a shopping mall, it said, adding the amount of steel bars used measures about 40,000 kilometers.
Samsung C&T said the completion of Merdeka 118 has cemented its top global status as a builder of skyscrapers.
In 1998, Samsung C&T completed the 452-meter-high Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the then highest building in Malaysia, and has since built several other high-rise buildings in the country.