Steel structure buildings are becoming widespread in the construction mainstream in more and more major cities in China. Due to lightness, convenience and energy-saving, the popularization of steel structure buildings is receiving increasing support from all levels of local governments, with the result that this particular sector is expected to experience a boom in the coming years.
According to the industrial development plans of the relevant government departments, during China's Eleventh Five Year Plan (2006-2010), the development goals regarding steel structures for buildings include: to expand the application area of steel structure buildings and to develop steel structure residence houses; to improve the steel consumption level of steel structures to six percent of the national annual steel output, to raise the technological level of steel structure buildings to advanced international levels, and to ensure by 2010 that all steel used in steel structure buildings is of Chinese origin.
The latest data indicate that if China's economic development maintains its current speed, both production and sales of steel structures are expected to maintain a 10 percent growth rate year-on-year or even higher. In 2007, the steel structure output is estimated to be around 20 million tons. By 2010, this figure is expected to increase to a range of 26-30 million tons.
This promising outlook will present big opportunities to the interested steelmakers. The major specifications of steel used in steel structure buildings are principally high quality welding structural steel, high tension plates, high quality welding cast steel, thermoforming pipes & tubes, hot rolled H-section steel and cold rolled forming sections.
Currently, steel structures are being used for building projects related to Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games and to the 2010 Shanghai Expo. In the near future, the use of steel structures in China is expected to increase remarkably in the following fields:
- Infrastructure projects - including temporary civic buildings, subways, bridges, highway guardrails, traffic signs, etc.
- Factory workshops - including all types of factories.
- Residential houses - this is a very big market. According to rough calculations, if steel structures takes up just five percent of all residential houses in China's cities and towns (50 kg of steel per square meter), the annual consumption of steel will be around two million tons.