News
Steel leads the market for frames
The Market for Structures – Non-Residential Multi-Storey Buildings – Total
Steel has been confirmed as the structural framing solution of first choice of the overwhelming majority of the UK design community in the latest Market Shares Survey. The 2008 survey, by independent market researchers Construction Markets, shows that steel’s market share remained above 70% in what was a record year for multi storey building frames.
Steel enjoyed a 70.1% share of the overall market of 15.3M square metres for multi storey building frames. Dominant market share was also retained in the key growth sectors of education and healthcare. Steel’s share of the single storey building market remained high at 97%.
Corus Construction Services and Development General Manager Alan Todd said: ”This is the 28th in this series of surveys which tell us all we need to know about the market response to steel’s quality and economic solutions. Despite the need for price rises being forced on steel manufacturers worldwide in recent years steel has maintained its competitive position.
“Rival materials have also faced intense price pressures so the relative competitive situation is little changed. When developers and their construction teams factor in the many advantages of steel such as superior sustainability and more certainty with construction programmes, the case for steel is obviously overwhelming. ”
Mr Todd added that although a challenging year lay ahead for the construction industry Corus remained committed to continuing its long term investment in research and development, and to making available to designers all they need to make designing in structural steel as straightforward as possible. “We are determined to continue investing so that steel construction can be even more popular with designers and building developers coming out of this recession than it was going into it.”
