Demand for structural steel products surges in May-June due to lockdown induced labour shortage

MUMBAI: Domestic demand for structural steel products accelerated in May-June as construction companies increasingly opted for the customizable building material for high-rise structures, apartments and quarantine facilities in the face of labour shortage due to the lockdown, steel players said.

“We have been in this business for the past 10 years, but after this pandemic began and there was a labour shortage, we found enquiries for readymade steel structures going up multifold,” said JSPL’s managing director, V.R. Sharma to ET. “Apart from companies like L&T, Tata Projects, Doosan, Toshiba, DLF and Reliance which have placed orders, Indian Railways, too, is replacing most of its old concrete materials to steel structures.”

Structural steel, or readymade steel, is a category of construction steel material that is produced with a particular cross section or shape, and some specified values of strength and chemical composition. It is customised by the builders who then assemble the parts at the site.

JSPL forayed into the construction materials & solutions business with its steel fabrication facilities of 240,000 MT/annum in Punjipatra, Raigarh, Angul and Raipur.

“We have sold around 18,000 metric tonnes of steel in FY20, with increasing demand for the steel structures. We have set a target to sell around 40,000 metric tonnes in FY21. High-rise steel buildings have a market potential of 80,000 metric tonnes as of now,” the company said.

This is an Amazon marketplace kind of a model, said Sharma, “We have simplified the work of the construction companies. We manufacture ready to erect steel structures and transport to different sites of our various customers where the engineers can assemble the multi-level high rise structure in a very short period.”

Tata Steel’s joint venture company, Tata BlueScope Steel, too, has ramped up production to provide readymade steel structures to the health sector.

“We have launched quick, easy to install and modular life-care structures for hygienic isolation units and contactless testing & sample collection kiosks. All structures are designed as per medical guidelines on social distancing,” said Riten Choudhury, MD, Tata BlueScope Steel, in a statement.

Choudhury said that with Covid-19, optimising healthcare facilities is the need of the hour, and the only way is to develop alternatives that are secure and quick to erect.

Tata Steel’s smart steel structures in form of quarantine wards and testing kiosks are available in kit-like solutions, wherein walls, roof panels and internal partitions, are assembled onsite. They can be dismantled, packed and shifted to other sites too.

“You don’t need too much labour; you don’t need to bring brick and mortar at sites. There is a huge cost advantage. Customers have reported at least a 15-10% reduction in costs. In a situation like today where most of the construction labourers have migrated back to their home town the steel building comes as a panacea,” said JSPL’s Sharma.

While there was demand in the market for construction steel in industrial space even before the pandemic, there is a jump in enquiries for residential and office work spaces too, said Sharma.

“We are working with L&T now and the company has placed orders to not just industrial units but also for residential houses and office work spaces,” he said.

Source : Economictimes Indiatimes Dead or Alive 2 Slot Review