Structural steel price jumps another £50 a tonne

Structural steel price jumps another £50 a tonne

Constructional steelwork contractors have been hit with another major price hike from British Steel to start the year.

In letters to contractors, British Steel blamed sustained high steel-making costs for the £50 a tonne increase on steel sections for all new orders with immediate effect.

The latest rise follows a volatile 2021 that saw seven price hikes lifting the price of steel by around £340 a tonne.

It comes as the Construction Leadership Council’s Product Availability working group reported signs of easing in supply bottlenecks around general construction material delivery times but warned that high energy prices would impact on the year ahead.

It said rising energy costs and price inflation continue to cause concern, with the latest forecasts anticipating 2022 price inflation from 7-10+%, with multiple increases expected for some products.

The working group predicted continuing high level of demand means that a shortfall in the domestic production of bricks, which is already at full capacity, will continue throughout 2022 until three new UK brick making plants come on stream in 2023 and 2024, boosting UK annual capacity by about 150m bricks per year.

Imports largely from the EU and potentially beyond will be required to meet current demand.

 

updated: 21/01/2022

Let us know what you think:



You are here: Blog / Structural steel price jumps another £50 a tonne