Posted on 25 Feb 2022
Today the iron and steel industry has a bigger role to play, not only as a fundamental element for industrial development producing primary materials but also to ensure it stay relevant in response to the needs of other downstream industries. It has to look beyond itself as just a steel manufacturer and start focusing on the downstream industries expectations and understand the dynamics of its market. Since the construction is the main steel consuming sector, it is therefore one of the key factors that is shaping the future of the iron and steel industry. The iron and steel industry needs to stay abreast of the developments, trends and the modern approaches of constructing buildings and infrastructures. The vibrant consuming sector has posed many challenges for the steel industry but yet there are also a lot of opportunities to create innovative steel product alongside with other construction materials to stay relevant and competitive.
In the 2021 SEAISI Sustainability & Construction Fortnight e-Event which was held last month, the topic on how the iron and steel industry can move forward with the construction sector was discussed extensively in the Week 2, CEO Panel Discussion Session. The session has invited 6 distinguished panelist from related industry and association which consist of
- Dato' Lim Hong Thye from Ann Joo Steel Berhad Malaysia
- Ms. Tan Man Ee from NatSteel Holdings Singapore
- Professor Dr. Dario Trabucco from Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
- Mr. Terrence Busuttil from World Steel Association
- Mr. Jakra Pornprasit from O-NES Tower Project, Thai Obayashi Thailand
- Ms. Pauline Tan from Tiong Seng Contractor, Singapore
In ASEAN, most of the steelmaking facilities are EAF based manufacturing rebar and wire rod to supply mainly to the construction sector for fabricating of Reinforcing Concrete (RC) structure. Dato' Lim Hong Thye strongly suggested the industry should start to produce steel with higher strength and lighter weight for the construction sector. Beside this, as the construction sector becoming more and more sophisticated in term of its size, its use, functions and design, it is shifting its demand from RC to structural steel for durability and flexibility. For the same reasons, the construction sector is also introducing other building materials like timber as part of the building component material that could improve structural integrity. This is the development that the iron and steel industry should comprehend to move forward.
The landscape of the iron and steel industry in Singapore is quite mature as the industry has already started to provide value added steel products to the construction sector. Ms. Tan Man Ee shared in the session that her company NatSteel has extended its business to customer based service by providing off-site prefabrication steel building component produced directly from its integrated concrete prefab hub. Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) is a construction method that is used to produce RC offsite and anticipating light weight concrete PPVC in near future. In term of sustainablitity of the business, NatSteel is also heading toward technologies to lessen its carbon foot print, and developing partnership with the construction sector.
Professor Dr. Dario Trabucco believes that steel is still playing a significant role in the construction sector. Steel
market has the possibility to regain a lot of the soon be the local partner for the ASEAN region.
Ms. Pauline Tan further explained that use of PPVC method is very much customer driven. She felt that there is a needs for the construction sector to be communicated and encourages to adopt this method. On the technologies in respect of digitalization or IoT, Singapore is still in the exploratory stage but is gaining traction and is getting a lot of attention towards it. However the b2b procurement platforms, like the digital rebar ordering orders are already in place, as well as some other digital construction platforms.
The O-NES Tower Project constructed by Thai Obayashi is one of the few buildings in Thailand that used steel composite in the building consists of special Concrete Filled Steel Tubular (CFT) for RC and structural steel for the outer building structure. Mr. Jakra Pornprasit said that although the design cost more compare to the conventional RC structure, the completion time of the project is shorter and this help business to start early for better return of investment. Moreover the CFT structure requires less space which increase the building rentable ratio. He believes that his new building concept will be the future for the construction sector in Thailand.
Buildings have also changed in the way it is designed to adapt to a less fixed and formal way of using the space towards a more flexible means. In his research, Professor Dr. Dario Trabucco has found out that today’s tall buildings are evolving towards a much more social place where people meet. Online meeting and working from home will continue and a mixed hotel and office building will be the trend.
However, is ASEAN or specifically the iron and steel industry is ready for this evolution of the construction sector? Dato' Lim Hong Thye viewed that steel industry is definitely has to move forward from its current position to a wider role in the value chain. The Covid pandemic has make the industry to pause and rethink its strategies to embrace changes in addressing challenges from the rapid development in the construction sector as well as in the climate change issue. He also concerns about the new investments on Blast Furnace coming in ASEAN which has higher carbon emission, contributing to the green house effect.
Regardless of various technologies and construction methodologies, every building materials are important to the construction sector and changing the way how steel can collaborate and work together with the various other materials down to the value chain is important to bring growth to the industries here. As sustainability has become an entirely new consideration for building materials to undergo the effect of these evolution, construction companies are becoming more environmentally concerned and using more steel in buildings will eventually position the steel industry to be relevant and important. The steel industry needs to form partnership with other industries will create economic opportunities for steel companies contributing significantly to the economy. In this manner, the institute SEAISI has an important role to play to align its steel members to the construction sector to work on a common benefit and to achieve a sustainable growth.
Wong Wah Sum
Source:SEAISI
