Your Steel Building Specialist
How has Covid affected the steel building industry?
How has Covid affected the steel building industry?
How has Covid affected the steel building industry? First and foremost, lets take a look at steel prices. Since September 2020, domestic hot rolled steel coil material prices have risen 232%. Considering many of the other materials that make up a pre-engineered steel building have seen similar increases, we have seen overall building costs more than double in the same time frame.
So what does Covid have to do with the price of steel you may ask. Lets look at the overall process to see where the effects come into play. Going back into 2020, with the unknown and uncertainty of this newly discovered virus, many companies made changes to how they operate. Contact tracing and an abundance of caution led to shut downs along the line of the entire process. In fact, one case of Covid can literally shut down and entire line whether its the rigid frames or trim or even engineering and detailing. From the foundries forging the raw materials of iron, carbon and other elements into the steel products to the converting plants creating hot or cold formed steel and steel plates, these shut down's caused a ripple in the overall process. These ripples showed up as product allocation issues as materials for panels and trim started to become scarce. In some cases it was a particular color that ran short, in others it was the particular gauge materials that were hard to get. To compound the issues facing the steel mills, other parts of the process saw problems as well. Some panels colors became impossible to get due to supply issues with paint and finishing products. Even the red oxide paint used to coat the primary and secondary steel frame structures saw supply chain issues.
Another factor in the production of the steel building that has to be considered is that the kit actually consists of so many parts and pieces. Some building manufacturers produce the majority of the items in a building kit from panels and trim to I-beam columns and rafters and secondary members. Even in this scenario, there are many items that still come from additional outside manufacturers such as screws, mastic, and rods or cables for bracing. Any break in the supply chain can cause interruptions in having a complete kit ready to ship like we have all been used to in the past.
Considering all these logistics in producing a steel building and you haven't even hit the final obstacles to overcome. Once the building is fabricated and all pieces are ready to ship, now you have to deal with a shortage in the shipping industry. There are currently more loads than drivers available creating a logistic nightmare for shipping departments in all industries. We have seen this come about when talking to the steel building shipping department when the building is ready to go, but they can't find a driver. When we know the building is finally scheduled, we then find out that insulation suppliers are hitting the same road blocks. All across the industry, getting products moved around continues to be difficult at best.
While all of those issues along the supply and production chain, we have made adjustments in our office to make sure we can service our customers. We are able to work in office and remotely in case of any Covid contact. Rest assured we are here to take care of our customers.
This has been an interesting year to say the least. We work hard to earn your trust as a customer and while some of the circumstances may be beyond our control, we try to communicate along the process. If your tired of pushy sales techniques, hidden escalation clauses, and questionable companies, give Renegade a call to get honest answers to your questions and work with a company you can trust.
Talk to one of our project managers to get the details you need for your pre-engineered steel building project.
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