Key Path and Practical Exploration of Cost Reduction and Efficiency in Steel Structure Engineering

2025-04-18 08:49:54

Driven by the dual drive of green transformation and industrialised construction in the construction industry, Steel Structure engineering has become an important part of the modern building system due to its advantages of high environmental friendliness, short construction cycle and strong recyclability. However, with the fluctuation of raw material prices, rising labour costs and improvement of project quality requirements, how to reduce construction costs under the premise of ensuring safety has become an urgent topic to be cracked for the whole industrial chain of Steel Structure Engineering. This paper systematically analyses the cost reduction strategy of steel structure engineering from the dimensions of design optimization, construction management and technological innovation.

Design optimisation lays the foundation of cost control

Cost control of steel structure project starts from the design stage. Using BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology for three-dimensional collaborative design can accurately calculate the size of components and node connections, avoiding the design errors easily generated by traditional two-dimensional drawings. In a large sports stadium project, the design team optimised the steel beam arrangement scheme through BIM collision detection, reducing redundant components by 12% and saving 150 tonnes of steel. At the same time, the implementation of standardised design concepts, the use of modular component combinations in steel structure projects with more repetitive units, such as factory buildings and logistics warehouses, has increased the reuse rate of components to 60%, and reduced the design cost of a single project by 8%-10%.

Supply chain integration reduces material procurement cost

Steel cost accounts for 40%-55% of the total cost of steel structure project, and it is especially important to establish a scientific procurement management system. Leading enterprises integrate regional demand through a centralised procurement platform, sign annual framework agreements with steel mills, and lock the supply of rebar, H-beam and other main materials at low prices, thus reducing material costs by 7.3% for an assembly housing project. In addition, the construction of a digital logistics network of ‘steel mill - processing base - construction site’ and the use of Internet of Things technology to monitor the transport path of steel can control the transport loss rate within 0.5%. A wind tower project in Inner Mongolia optimised the steel cutting and sampling programme, increasing the material utilisation rate from 89% to 96% and reducing the amount of scrap by more than 300 tonnes.

Industrialised construction to improve construction efficiency

The industrialised production characteristics of steel structure projects provide natural advantages for cost reduction. In the processing section, the introduction of equipment such as intelligent unloading robots and automatic assembly and welding production lines has increased the processing efficiency of complex nodes by three times, and shortened the manufacturing cycle of 3,000 tonnes of steel box girders in a bridge project by 20 days. The construction site adopts modular lifting process and simulates the lifting sequence of components through BIM+5G technology, which compresses the construction cycle of the standard floor of a super-high-rise building from 7 days to 4 days and reduces the number of aerial workers by 30%. An industrial park project in Zhejiang applies drones to carry out three-dimensional scanning of steel structure, shortening the installation error detection time from 48 hours to 2 hours and reducing rework costs by 900,000 RMB.

The whole life cycle management to explore the hidden value

The cost control of steel structure project needs to be extended to the operation and maintenance stage. The use of long-lasting anti-corrosion technologies such as hot-dip galvanising and fireproof coatings can extend the building maintenance cycle to 25 years, and the whole life-cycle maintenance cost is 40% lower than that of concrete structures. A data centre project achieved preventive maintenance by implanting sensors to monitor stress changes in steel components, avoiding $3 million in repair costs due to structural damage. At the demolition stage, through the design of removable nodes and material traceability system, the recycling rate of steel components of a commercial complex reached 85%, and the residual value income offset the original construction cost by 15%.

Policy guidance and industrial synergy to create a win-win ecology

Policies such as the Ministry of Finance's Standard for Government Procurement Requirements for Green Buildings and Green Building Materials provide institutional guarantee for cost optimisation of steel structure projects. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and other regions to establish the assembly building industry alliance, to promote the design, production, construction enterprises in-depth synergies, so that the EPC (Engineering General Contracting) project comprehensive cost reduction of 12% -18%. 2023, Shenzhen, a guaranteed housing project through the ‘design-production-construction’ integrated management, to achieve the reduction of project cost by 9.6%, shorten the construction period 9.6% and shortened the construction period by 4 months.

Cost control of steel structure project is a systematic project covering technology, management and system. According to the statistics of China Construction Metal Structure Association, in 2023, the average cost of steel structure projects adopting digital cost reduction programme will be 18% lower than that of traditional mode, and the construction period will be 25% shorter. These practices show that through whole-chain optimisation and technological innovation, steel structure projects can not only achieve improved economic benefits, but will also promote the construction industry to high-quality and sustainable development. With the continuous improvement of intelligent construction technology and industrial synergy mechanism, the cost advantage of steel structure project will be further released.