D1 Capabilities
Structure and Civils
The structural and below-ground package, and the temporary works that build it. This division carries the highest life-safety exposure in our book and the heaviest trade-defence risk, so it runs the tightest controls: third-party witness testing at the mill, published load tables, and a duty screen on every quotation.
01Scope
| Category | Content |
|---|---|
| Reinforcement | Deformed bar, plain bar, welded mesh, couplers, spacers and chairs, post-tensioning strand, anchorages, fibre reinforcement |
| Structural steel | Hot-rolled sections, plate, hollow sections, fabricated steelwork, pre-engineered buildings, roof trusses, purlins, metal decking, grating, handrail |
| Temporary works | Ringlock and cuplock system scaffold, tube and fitting, aluminium and steel formwork, falsework and props, shoring, edge protection |
| Admixtures and mortars | Superplasticiser, accelerator, retarder, waterproofing admixture, tile adhesive, grout, render, screed, repair mortar |
| Below ground | Geotextile, geomembrane, geogrid, drainage board, waterproofing membrane, protection board |
02Source geography
Where it is made.
Steel from Tangshan, Handan and Qian'an in Hebei, from Rizhao, Laiwu and Linyi in Shandong, and from Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu. Pre-engineered building fabrication from the Anhui and Shandong export fabricators.
Scaffolding and formwork from the Hebei tube belt at Tangshan, Cangzhou and Botou, and from Shandong and Guangdong. Admixtures from the Nanjing and Xiamen polycarboxylate producers and the China operations of the international formulators.
Where tariff or standards conditions favour it, sections and rebar from India, Vietnam or Turkey.
03What we check
Six controls that are not negotiable.
This division has the lowest margin and the highest life-safety exposure in our book. The controls are correspondingly tight.
- Grade equivalence is not translation. GB/T 1499.2 HRB400 and HRB500 are not interchangeable with BS 4449 B500B or ASTM A615 Gr60. Ductility class and rib geometry differ. We require third-party witness testing at the mill for structural reinforcement and EN 10204 3.2 inspection certificates where the destination specification calls for them.
- Execution class, not just a CE mark. Very few Chinese fabricators hold EN 1090 execution class EXC-3. Most buyers cannot tell it from EXC-2, and it is the difference between a warehouse shed and a stadium. We source to the class the structure requires.
- A scaffold system without a load table cannot be erected. Much of the ringlock on the market is a dimensional copy of a proprietary European system with no test data behind it. A system without a published load table tested to EN 12810 cannot lawfully be erected in the United Kingdom, the European Union or Australia. We supply tested systems only.
- Tube wall thickness is a life-safety item, not a commercial one. 3.2mm against 2.5mm, Q345 against Q235. We measure it on arrival.
- Galvanising is specified and measured. Hot dip to EN ISO 1461 at 55 to 85 microns, not pre-galvanised strip that fails at the weld, and not paint described as galvanised.
- Duty screened before quotation. Steel is the most trade-defended product category in the world. Every quotation runs the current anti-dumping, countervailing, safeguard and quota position for the specific product and origin against the destination market, including melt-and-pour evidence where the European Union or United Kingdom is the destination.
04Standards and conformity
| Market | Requirement |
|---|---|
| European Union and United Kingdom | CE or UKCA under the Construction Products Regulation to EN 1090-1, steel to EN 10025, scaffolds to EN 12810 and EN 12811, couplers to EN 74, falsework to EN 12812 |
| United States | AISC certification, AWS D1.1 welding and welder qualification, ASTM A615 or A706, ASTM A992, OSHA 1926 Subpart L |
| Gulf | SASO and the Saudi Building Code, SASO Quality Mark on certain steel |
| Australia | AS/NZS 1576, AS/NZS 4600, AS/NZS 5131 |
05Commercial parameters
- Pricing basis
- Steel is priced against hot-rolled coil, which means every quotation can be sanity-checked against the index.
- Minimum order
- Scaffolding by the tonne or by the piece, from one tonne. Steel sections by the tonne. Pre-engineered buildings are project-quoted.
- Lead time
- 20 to 45 days on steel product. 45 to 90 days on pre-engineered buildings including approval drawings.
- Quotation validity
- Capped at 30 days on commodity-linked product. We would rather requote than carry an unhedged position on your behalf.
Enquire about structure and civils.
Send the specification, the schedule or the drawing package. We will confirm what we can supply, the conformity route for your market, and a delivered programme.
Request a quotation