A Commending Future for Pre-Engineered Building Systems

Technological enhancement over the years has contributed enormously to the improvement of quality of life through several new products and services. One such revolution was the pre-engineered buildings. Though one can trace its origin back to 1960’s, its potential has been felt only during the recent years. An estimated 70% of all new commercial buildings in the US are pre-engineered/pre-fabricated and this trend has now become popular in India as well. The pre-engineered building systems, unarguably, are the new wave in construction industry.

• Pre-engineered or Pre-fabricated steel building

is any part of a structure that’s manufactured before it comes on the building site. The concept of the pre-engineered building (PEB) is one where the fabrication is completed in a controlled environment with the help of latest technology and then subsequent erection is executed. Though, earlier only off the shelf products were available in these configurations helped by the technological development, tailor made solutions are also made using this technology in very short durations.

The designs were quite ready; however, the building components were either ready-made or manufactured against particular orders. These buildings were pre designed or pre-engineered into standard sizes, bays and heights, spans and use standard details roofing, fixing cladding, flashing, doors, windows, etc. taking benefits of industrial practices of mass production of components economically. Though PEB systems are extensively used in industrial and several other non-residential constructions globally, it’s relatively a new concept in India. The Indian markets were introduced to these concepts in the late 90’s with the opening up of the economy and several multi-nationals setting up their projects. The manufacturing capacity of the current pre-engineered steel building is six lacs ton per year. The industry is also growing at the rate of 25 to 30%.

A healthy trend in the form of growth in demand for construction works in the commercial, residential, industrial and infrastructure sectors are being seen over the past decade. Modern structures are quite more complex and sophisticated as compared to earlier period. One of the primary changes which everyone felt is that the current structures are taller and thinner. Present day requirement of structures is that these should be lighter yet not comprising on functionality. The construction in civil engineering has seen a continuous economic competition between concrete, steel and other construction materials.

Currently the total production of steel in the country is about 45 Mn ton against 1280 Mn of world. Per capita steel consumption in India is 42kg while it’s 270kg in China. Around 10% of steel goes to the construction industry and amidst it PEB accounts only for the 0.5 Mn ton. In the next 5 years, the production of prefabricated steel structure will be doubled and with efforts of some organisations, steel intensive construction might rise up to 22Mn ton. Due to the benefits of PEB, many non-conventional segments are also getting attracted to use PEB and the potential will rise up to 2.2 Mn ton which is 4 to 5 times of today’s scenario.

Sunil Srivastava is a Business Partner at New Life Steel Structures, a leading organization having expertise into the manufacturing of prefabricated steel structure.