The Steel Framing Industry Reports Big Gains During the Pandemic

On Monday, October 18, and Tuesday, October 19, 2021, leaders of the cold-formed steel (CFS) framing industry, including the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA) Board of Directors, learned through a series of online meetings that the industry is healthy and robust.

“A lot of good things are going on in the steel framing industry, and one of them is the tonnage of material our members are producing,” said Larry Williams, SFIA executive director, in a report to the SFIA Manufacturers Council. “For the third quarter of 2021, we’ve had an excellent three months following a shaky 2020 and on into the second quarter in 2021. The industry has recovered nicely, and that’s despite the headwinds we’ve faced in both availability of materials and pricing. We finished the third quarter [2021] in a very strong position.”

The three online meetings, held as part of SFIA’s fall 2021 conference, included the SFIA Manufacturers Council and SFIA Technical Committee on Monday, October 18, and the SFIA Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday, October 19. Here are highlights from those meetings.

CFS Output: Highest Since 2018

At the SFIA Manufacturers Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 18, Williams discussed industry tonnage figures, and Patrick Ford, SFIA technical director presented a report on SFIA code compliance certification, which is administered by Intertek Group, PLC.

The SFIA Quarterly Market Data tonnage figures are available only to SFIA members. However, SFIA shared the following figures with BuildSteel:

• Total steel production (structural and nonstructural): 306,366 tons for Q3 2021
• Q3 2021 was the highest output since Q2 2018 total steel production of 302,078 tons

Ford led a discussion on an SFIA initiative to re-test a representative sampling of member CFS coatings. This re-testing effort would ensure that SFIA’s code compliance program meets the latest G40 protective coatings for nonstructural steel standard. The G40 equivalent corrosion resistance standard is found in AISI S220 “North American Standard for Cold-Formed Steel Framing — Nonstructural Members” from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

The project was made necessary due to changes to the 2018 International Building Code, where the 8 types of coatings identified in ASTM A1003 for nonstructural products were replaced with the provision in AISI S220. That provision states that the minimum allowable coating must be either G40 or “a protective coating with an equivalent corrosion resistance.” However, the AISI standard does not identify what constitutes “equivalent corrosion resistance.” The standard furthermore eliminates the flexibility for manufacturers to source steel coils with coatings other than G40.

“This test program is essential to restoring the flexibility our members need,” Ford said. “It evaluates the performance of G40, which will then allow us to test the additional coatings found in ASTM A1003 to determine if they meet the minimum performance of G40.”

Ford said the test results will likely be available in 2022.

Specifications Reviews: Making Waves

Bob Grupe, program general manager for the SFIA Specifications Review Service for architects and specifications writers, reported on program results to the SFIA Manufacturers Council on Monday and the SFIA Board on Tuesday.

“We’ve been very successful in revealing the results of our reviews of architectural specifications with architects,” Grupe said. “These specifications can be project-specific, or targeted to a specific project, but are more commonly a house standard, so once an architect modifies their specifications, based on what we recommend, we see influence on multiple projects.”

Grupe cited the specifications at two architecture firms that his team of four consultants reviewed. One is Stantec, an engineering services company with offices in 45 states and 17 countries. The other is Gensler, the world’s largest architecture firm, with over 5,500 licensed architects on staff and offices in 49 cities and 16 countries.

“That one specification with Gensler could net us influence on 350 projects, because the same specification will be used over and over,” Grupe said.

Architects and specification writers appreciate the SFIA Specifications Review Service, Grupe said. “There is demand for us,” he said. “They [the architects and spec writers] respect what we’re saying, and they respond by updating their specifications.”

Product Technical Guide: Update Coming

On Monday, October 18, Jeff Klaiman of ADTEK Engineers, Inc. and chairman of the SFIA Technical Committee, welcomed committee members promptly at 4:30 p.m. eastern time and invited Ford to update the group on projects it has in the pipeline.

One project is an update of the SFIA Technical Guide for Cold‐Formed Steel Framing Products, which Ford said is nearly complete.

“We’ve developed some properties tables and comparisons,” Ford said. “The Guide helps engineers feel comfortable in designing with cold-formed steel, which is very important, and they’re going to give us back some material efficiencies.”

Consistent Code Compliance Certification

The annual SFIA Board of Directors meeting took place on Tuesday, October 19, at 10:30 a.m. eastern.

Williams reported to the board that membership renewals and recruitment for 2021 have gone well. This year, the new SFIA members include contractors, contractor/manufacturers, design firms, steel mills and other types of companies.

“Looking at statistics from the American Society of Association Executives, an association generally is expected, especially an industry association, to have 85% retention,” Williams said. “We’ve been at 94% for the last couple of years.”

Michael Weigner, senior project engineer for technical support at Intertek Group, discussed the SFIA code compliance certification program. He said that Intertek has 13 trained inspectors on staff inspecting CFS framing production facilities in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“These are all Intertek employees. They’re not subcontractors, but they’re full or part-time,” Weigner said. “All samples selected for the semi-annual inspections are tested here and at our York, Pa. facility. So, we have consistency in our inspectors, consistency in our employees and consistency in the process here as well.”

The SFIA code compliance certification program currently has 24 members at 46 plant sites. The members range from steel framing contractor manufacturers to traditional roll-formers.

SFIA Webinars: Diverse and Growing

Meredith Perez, program manager for the SFIA Forum, the association’s CFS framing education program, shared information with the SFIA Board on this year’s SFIA-sponsored webinar programs and the plans for building attendance.

“Our percentages for attendance [at webinars] are pretty strong, and I think are fairly in line with industry averages, so we’re doing well on that front,” Perez said. “A big goal moving forward will be to see how we can bump up those registrations and hold to a 50 percent average attendance rate.”

SFIA Forum webinars that have run in 2021 include:

• The Millennial Solution: Development, Growing and Leading Your People
• Thermal Bridges: Small Details with a Large Impact on CFS
• Panelization of CFS Assemblies
• Standards for Cold-Formed Steel
• Breaking the Noise: Acoustics with Cold-Formed Steel
• True Cost and Sustainability of CFS
• Cold-Formed Steel’s Place in LEED 4.1 and Sustainable Construction
• Fire-rated CFS Assembly Listings: It Doesn’t (Always) Come Easy
• The State of Steel Framing – And What You Can Do About It
• Selling to the U.S. Federal Government – Considerations and Opportunities
• Cold-Formed Steel for Mid-Rise Construction in the Aloha State

Upcoming webinars include:

• 2022 Economic Forecast with AGC’s Ken Simonson (November 9)
• Moisture and Continuous Insulation with Jay Crandell (November 17)

“I’m going to investigate some new platforms and partners that we might be able to team up with to boost registrations,” Perez said. “I’m thinking about state level architecture and engineering associations and groups to get our message out even further and get more people into our sessions.”

The Extraordinary Growth of BuildSteel

Mark L. Johnson, editor of BuildSteel, the voice of the steel framing industry, told the SFIA Manufacturers Council on Monday and the SFIA Board on Tuesday that BuildSteel is having another great year in terms of online engagement and impressions.

In April 2021, BuildSteel launched an industry Product and Provider Directory, which features SFIA member companies’ products and services. The Product and Provider Directory pageviews, and individual company pageviews, continue to grow in numbers, Johnson said.

“We are starting to put some ad dollars behind the directory to keep the activity going,” Johnson said. “But until now, we have just promoted the directory organically through the BuildSteel newsletter, BuildSteel Weekly, and BuildSteel social media marketing platforms.”

Both BuildSteel.org and the BuildSteel Weekly newsletter have grown in users and subscribers. In fact, BuildSteel Weekly has had 118,000 opens year to date through October 5, compared to only 40,000 opens in the same 2020 period.

“BuildSteel is becoming quite the communications vehicle,”Johnson said. “The growth has been extraordinary.”

Looking ahead, Johnson said his team is working on articles, ads and videos to celebrate SFIA’s 10-year anniversary. The SFIA anniversary content will appear later this year and in early 2022.

Additional Resources

• The State of Steel Framing: A Solid Pipeline of Work
• 3 Trends Driving the Construction Industry
• SFIA Reports Big Jump in Q2 Steel Stud Volume

Cited by BuildSteel.org